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THE  JEWS 

IN  THE 

MAKING  ^/AMERICA 

by 

GEORGE  COHEN 


1924 

THE  STRATFORD  CO.,  Publishers 
Boston,  Massachusetts 


Copyright,  1924 

By  THE  KNIGHTS  OF  COLUMBUS 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


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THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED 


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ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

I  wish  to  gratefully  acknowledge  the  assistance 
of  the  late  Mr.  A.  S.  Freidus  of  the  Jewish  Depart¬ 
ment  of  the  New  York  Public  Library  and  the  valu¬ 
able  suggestions  for  revision  offered  by  Mr.  Albert 
M.  Friedenberg,  Secretary  of  the  American  Jewish 
Historical  Society.  I  wish  also  to  express  my  deep 
thanks  to  Mr.  Louis  M.  Hacker  for  his  kind  interest 
in  the  work  and  to  my  sisters  Miss  Frances  and  Miss 
Jennie  for  the  typing  of  the  manuscript. 

George  Cohen. 


Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  April,  1924. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  The  Jews  and  the  Discovery  of 

America . 33 

II  The  Jew  and  American  Ideals  .  .  46 

III  The  Jews  and  the  Economic  Founda¬ 

tions  of  America  ....  60 

IV  The  Jews  and  the  Revolutionary  War  73 

V  The  Jews  and  the  Civil  War  .  .  84 

VI  The  Jews  and  the  World  War  .  .  106 

VII  The  American  Economic  Life  .  .120 

VIII  In  the  American  Theatre  .  .  .  144 

IX  In  American  Literature  .  .  .163 

X  In  American  Music  and  Art  .  .182 

XI  In  Science  and  the  Professions  .  .  196 

XII  In  Public  and  Religious  Life  .  .210 

XIII  The  Psychology  of  the  Jew  .  .  .  237 

Summary  and  Conclusion  .  .  .253 


THE  RACIAL  CONTRIBUTIONS 
TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 

By  Edw.  F.  McSweeney,  LL.  D. 

In  a  general  way,  the  Racial  Contribution  Series  in  the 
Knights  of  Columbus  historical  program  is  intended  as  a 
much  needed  and  important  contribution  to  national 
solidarity.  The  various  studies  are  treated  by  able  writ¬ 
ers,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  each  being  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  achievements  in  this  country  of  the 
racial  group  of  whom  he  treats.  The  standard  of  the 
writers  is  the  only  one  that  will  justify  historical  writing; 
—  the  truth.  No  censorship  has  been  exercised. 

No  subject  now  actively  before  the  people  of  the  United 
States  has  been  more  written  on,  and  less  understood,  than 
alien  immigration.  Until  1819,  there  were  no  official  sta¬ 
tistics  of  immigration  of  any  sort ;  the  so-called  census  of 
1790  was  simply  a  report  of  the  several  states  of  their  male 
white  population  under  and  over  16  years  of  age,  all 
white  females,  slaves,  and  others.  Statements  as  to  the 
country  of  origin  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  country  were, 
in  the  main,  guesswork,  with  the  result  that,  while  the 
great  bulk  of  such  estimates  was  honestly  and  patriotically 
done,  some  of  the  most  quoted  during  the  present  day 
were  inspired,  obviously  to  prove  a  predetermined  case, 
rather  than  to  recite  the  ascertained  fact. 


1 


2  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

From  the  beginning  the  dominant  groups  in  control  in 
the  United  States  have  regarded  each  group  of  newer 
arrivals  as  more  or  less  the  “enemy”  to  be  feared,  and,  if 
possible,  controlled.  A  study  of  various  cross-sections  of 
the  country  will  show  dominant  alien  groups  who  for¬ 
merly  had  to  fight  for  their  very  existence.  With  increased 
numerical  strength  and  prosperity  they  frequently  at¬ 
tempted  to  do  to  the  later  aliens,  frequently  even  of  their 
own  group,  what  had  formerly  been  done  to  them :  — 
decry  and  stifle  their  achievements,  and  deny  them  oppor¬ 
tunity,  —  the  one  thing  that  may  justly  be  demanded  in  a 
Democracy,  —  by  putting  them  in  a  position  of  inferiority. 

To  attempt,  in  this  country,  to  set  up  a  “caste”  control, 
based  on  the  accident  of  birth,  wealth,  or  privilege,  is  a 
travesty  of  Democracy.  When  Washington  and  his  com¬ 
patriots,  a  group  comprising  the  most  efficiently  prepared 
men  in  the  history  of  the  world,  who  had  set  themselves 
definitely  to  form  a  democratic  civilization,  dreamed  of 
and  even  planned  by  Plato,  but  held  back  by  slavery  and 
paganism,  they  found  their  sure  foundations  in  the  precepts 
of  Christianity,  and  gave  them  expression  in  the  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Independence.  The  liberty  they  sought,  based  on 
obedience  to  the  law  of  God  as  well  as  of  man,  was  actu¬ 
ally  established,  but  from  the  beginning  it  has  met  a 
constant  effort  to  substitute  some  form  of  absolutism  tend¬ 
ing  to  break  down  or  replace  democratic  institutions. 

What  may  be  called,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  the 
colonial  spirit,  which  is  the  essence  of  hyphenism,  has 
persisted  in  this  country  to  hamper  national  progress  and 
national  unity.  Wherever  this  colonial  spirit  shows  itself 
it  is  a  menace  to  be  fought,  whether  the  secret  or  acknowl¬ 
edged  attachment  binds  to  England,  Ireland,  France, 
Germany,  Italy,  Greece  or  any  other  nation. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  3 

Jefferson  pointed  out  that  we  have  on  this  soil  evolved 
a  new  race  of  men  who  may  inexactly  be  called  “Amer¬ 
icans”.  This  term,  as  a  monopoly  of  the  United  States, 
is  properly  objected  to  by  our  neighbors,  North  and  South 
—  yet  it  has  a  definite  meaning  for  the  world. 

During  the  Great  War  one  aspect  of  war  duty  was  to 
direct  the  labor  activities  growing  out  of  the  war,  to  divert 
labor  from  “non-essential”  to  “essential”  industry  and  to 
arbitrate  and  mediate  on  wage  matters.  It  was  found 
necessary  to  study  and  to  analyze  the  greatly  feared,  but 
infrequently  discovered  “enemy  alien” ;  and  as  a  prepara¬ 
tion  for  this  duty,  with  the  assistance  of  several  hundred 
local  agents,  the  population  of  Massachusetts  was  sepa¬ 
rated  into  naturally  allied  groups  based  on  birth,  racial 
descent,  religious,  social  and  industrial  affiliations.  The 
astonishing  result  was  that,  counting  as  “native  Ameri¬ 
cans”  only  the  actual  descendants  of  all  those  living  in 
Massachusetts  in  1840,  of  whatever  racial  stock  prior  to 
that  time,  only  two-sevenths,  even  with  the  most  liberal 
classification,  came  within  the  group  of  colonial  descent, 
while  the  remaining  five-sevenths  were  found  in  the  vari¬ 
ous  racial  groups  coming  later  than  1840.  More  than 
this:  While  the  “Colonial”  group  had  increased  in  num¬ 
bers  for  three  decades  after  1840,  in  1918  they  were  found 
actually  to  be  fewer  in  number  than  in  1840,  a  diminution 
due  to  excess  of  deaths  over  births,  proceeding  in  increas¬ 
ing  ratio. 

Membership  in  the  Society  of  Mayflower  descendants  is 
eagerly  sought  as  the  hallmark  of  American  ancestry.  In 
anticipation  of  the  tercentenary  of  the  Mayflower-coming 
in  1620,  about  a  dozen  years  ago  a  questionnaire  was  sent 
to  every  known  eligible  for  Mayflower  ancestry,  and  the 
replies  were  submitted  to  the  experts  in  one  of  the  national 


4  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

universities  for  review  and  report.  When  this  report  was 
presented  later,  it  contained  the  statement  that,  consider¬ 
ing  the  prevailing  number  of  marriages  in  this  group,  and 
children  per  family,  —  when  the  six-hundredth  celebra¬ 
tion  of  the  Pilgrims’  Landing  is  held  in  2220,  three  hun¬ 
dred  years  hence,  a  ship  the  size  of  the  original  Mayflower 
will  be  sufficient  to  carry  back  to  Europe  all  the  then 
living  Mayflower  descendants. 

The  future  of  America  is  in  the  keeping  of  the  80  per 
cent,  of  the  population,  separate  in  blood  and  race  from 
the  colonial  descent  group.  Love  of  native  land  is  one  of 
the  strongest  and  noblest  passions  of  which  a  man  is 
capable.  Family  life,  religion,  the  soil  which  holds  the 
dust  of  our  fathers,  sentiment  for  ancestral  property,  and 
many  other  bonds,  make  the  ties  of  home  so  strong  and 
enduring,  and  unite  a  man’s  life  so  closely  with  its  native 
environment,  that  grave  and  powerful  reasons  must  exist 
before  a  change  of  residence  is  contemplated.  Escape  from 
religious  persecution  and  political  tyranny  were  unques¬ 
tionably  the  chief  reasons  which  induced  the  early  comers 
to  America  to  brave  the  dangers  of  an  unknown  world. 
Yet  that  very  intolerance  against  which  this  was  a  protest 
soon  began  to  be  exercised  against  all  those  unwilling  to 
accept  in  their  new  homes  the  religious  leadership  of  those 
in  control. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  the  persecutions  due  to 
religious  bigotry  of  the  colonial  period.  While  the  spirit 
of  liberty  was  in  the  free  air  of  the  colonies  and  would 
finally  have  secured  national  independence,  it  is  not  pos¬ 
sible  to  underestimate  the  support  brought  to  the  revolting 
colonials  because  of  the  attitude  of  Great  Britain  in  allow¬ 
ing  religious  freedom  to  Canada  after  it  had  been  taken 
from  the  French.  After  the  victory  of  New  Orleans,  a 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  5 

spirit  of  national  consciousness  on  a  democratic  basis  was 
built  up  and  the  narrow  spirit  of  colonialism  and  of  reli¬ 
gious  intolerance  was  to  a  great  degree  repudiated  by  the 
people,  when  they  had  become  inspired  with  the  American 
spirit,  —  only  to  be  revived  later  on. 

The  continued  manifestation  of  intolerance  has  been 
the  most  persistent  effort  in  our  national  life.  It  has 
done  incalculable  harm.  It  is  apparently  deep-rooted,  an 
active  force  in  almost  every  generation.  Present  in  the 
30’s,  40’s  and  50’s,  stopped  temporarily  for  two  decades 
by  the  Civil  War,  it  has  recurred  subsequently  again  and 
again;  revived  since  the  Armistice,  it  is  unfortunately 
shown  to-day  in  as  great  a  virulence  and  power  of 
destructiveness  as  at  any  time  during  the  last  hundred 
years. 

After  the  70’s,  as  the  aliens  became  numerically  power¬ 
ful  and  began  to  demand  political  representation,  move¬ 
ments  based  on  religious  prejudice  were  started  from  time 
to  time,  some  of  •  which  came  to  temporary  prominence, 
later  to  die  an  inglorious  death ;  but  all  these  movements 
which  attempted  to  deprive  aliens  of  their  right  of  free¬ 
dom  to  worship  were  calculated  to  bring  economic  dis¬ 
content  and  to  add  to  the  measure  of  national  disunion 
and  unhappiness. 

Sixty  years  ago1  the  bigoted  slogan  was  “No  Irish  need 
apply  ”  During  the  World  War,  the  principal  attack 
was  on  the  German-American  citizens  of  this  country, 
whose  fathers  had  come  here  seeking  a  new  land  as  a 
protest  against  tyranny.  To-day  the  current  attempt  is 

1  In  the  fifties  it  was  customary  for  the  merchants,  etc.,  to  have  posted 
at  their  door  a  list  of  help  wanted.  Many  of  these  help  wanted  sign* 
were  accompanied  by  another  which  read  “No  Irish  need  apply.”  Dur¬ 
ing  the  Civil  War  there  was  an  Anti-Draft  song  with  a  refrain  to  the 
effect  that  when  it  came  to  drafting  they  did  not  practice  “No  Irish  need 
apply.” 


6  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 


to  deprive  the  Jews2 3  of  the  right  to  educational  equality. 
In  short,  while  there  have  been  spasmodic  manifestations 
of  movements  based  on  intolerance  in  many  countries,  the 
United  States  has  the  unenviable  record  for  continuous 
effort  to  keep  alive  a  bogey  based  on  an  increasing  fear  of 
something  which  never  existed,  and  cannot  ever  exist  in 
this  country. 

For  a  hundred  years  the  potent  cause  which  has  poured 
millions  of  human  beings  into  the  United  States  has  been 
its  marvellous  opportunities,  and  unprecedented  economic 
urge.  Ever  since  1830  a  graphic  chart  of  the  variations 
in  immigration  from  year  to  year  will  reflect  the  industrial 
situation  in  the  United  States  for  the  same  period.  In 
1837,  the  total  immigration  was  79,430/  After  the  panic 
of  that  year  it  decreased  in  1838  to  38,9 14.4  In  1842,  it 
increased  to  104, 565, 5  but  a  business  depression  in  1844 
caused  it  to  shrink  to  78,6 15. 6  Thus  the  influx  of  aliens 
increased  or  decreased  according  to  the  industrial  condi¬ 
tions  prevalent  here.  The  business  prosperity  of  the 
United  States  was  not  only  the  urge  to  entice  immigrants 
hither,  but  it  made  their  coming  possible  as  they  were 
helped  by  the  savings  of  relatives  and  friends  already  here. 

The  English  were  not  immigrants,  but  colonists, 
merely  going  from  one  part  of  national  territory  to  an¬ 
other.  With  few  exceptions,  the  majority  of  the  early 
colonists  came  from  England.  The  first  English  settle¬ 
ment  was  made  in  Virginia  under  the  London  Company 

2  “Americans  only1’  in  a  real  estate  advertisement  to-day  usually 
means  “No  Jews  need  apply.”  It  sometimes  means  Irish  (i.  e.,  Catholic) 
also. 

3  Wm.  J.  Bromwell,  History  of  Immigration  to  United  States,  p.  96. 

4  Ibid.,  p.  100. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  1 1 6. 

6  Ibid.,  p.  124. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  7 

in  1607.  It  took  twelve  years  of  hard  struggling  to 
establish  this  colony  on  a  permanent  basis. 

The  New  England  region  was  settled  by  a  different 
class  of  colonists.  Plymouth  was  the  first  settlement,  in 
1620,  followed  in  1630  by  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony, 
which  later  absorbed  the  Plymouth  settlement.  Popula¬ 
tion,  after  the  first  ten  years,  increased  rapidly  by  natural 
growth,  and  soon  colonies  in  Rhode  Island,  New  Hamp¬ 
shire  and  Connecticut  resulted  from  the  overflow  in  the 
original  settlements. 

While  this  English  settlement  was  going  on  North  and 
South,  the  Dutch,  under  the  Dutch  West  India  Company, 
took  possession  of  the  region  between,  and  founded  New 
Netherlands  and  New  Amsterdam,  later  New  York  City. 
Intervening,  as  it  did,  between  their  Northern  and  South¬ 
ern  colonies,  New  Netherlands,  which  the  English  con¬ 
sidered  a  menace,  wTas  seized  by  the  English  during  a  war 
with  Holland,  and  became  New  York  and  New  Jersey. 

Early  in  the  seventeenth  century  there  was  a  substan¬ 
tial  French  immigration  to  the  Dutch  colonies.  There  was 
a  constant  stream  of  French  immigration  to  the  English 
colonies  in  New  England  and  in  Virginia  by  many  of  the 
Huguenots  who  had  originally  emigrated  to  the  West 
Indies. 

In  1681,  Penn  settled  Pennsylvania  under  a  royal 
charter  and  thus  the  whole  Atlantic  coast  from  Canada  to 
Florida  became  subject  to  England.  During  the  colonial 
period,  England  contributed  to  the  population  of  the 
colonies.  But,  by  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  coming  of  the  English  to  New  England  was  practi¬ 
cally  over.  From  1628  to  1641  about  20,000  came  from 
England  to  New  England,  but  for  the  next  century  and 
a  half  more  persons  went  back  to  Old  England  than  came 


8  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 


from  there  to  New  England.7  Due  to  the  relaxing  of 
religious  persecution  of  dissenting  Protestants  in  England, 
the  great  formerly  impelling  force  to  seek  a  new  home 
across  the  ocean  in  America  had  ceased. 

In  1653  an  Irish  immigration  to  New  England,  much 
larger  in  numbers  than  the  original  Plymouth  Colony,  was 
proposed.  Bristol  merchants,  who  realized  the  necessity 
of  populating  the  colonies  to  make  them  prosperous, 
treated  with  the  government  for  men,  women  and  girls 
to  be  sent  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  New  England.8  At 
the  very  fountain  head  of  American  life  we  find,  therefore, 
men  and  women  of  pure  Celtic  blood  from  the  South  of 
Ireland,  infused  into  the  primal  stock  of  America.  But 
these  apparently  were  only  a  drop  in  this  early  tide  of 
Irish  immigration.9 

7  Commercial  Relations  of  the  United  States ,  1885-1886,  Appendix 
III,  p.  1967. 

8  “The  Commissioners  for  Ireland  gave  them  orders  upon  the  gov¬ 

ernors  of  garrisons,  to  deliver  to  them  prisoners  of  war ;  upon  the  keep¬ 
ers  of  gaols,  for  offenders  in  custody ;  upon  masters  of  workhouses,  for 
the  destitute  in  their  care  ‘who  were  of  an  age  to  labor,  or  if  women 
were  marriageable  and  not  past  breeding’;  and  gave  directions  to  all  in 
authority  to  seize  those  who  had  no  visible  means  of  livelihood,  and 
deliver  them  to  these  agents  of  the  Bristol  sugar  merchants,  in  execution 
of  which  latter  direction  Ireland  must  have  exhibited  scenes  in  every 
part  like  the  slave  hunts  in  Africa.  How  many  girls  of  gentle  birth 
have  been  caught  and  hurried  to  the  private  prisons  of  these  man- 
catchers  none  can  tell.  Messrs.  Sellick  and  Leader,  Mr.  Robert 
Yeomans,  Mr.  Joseph  Lawrence,  and  others,  all  of  Bristol,  were  active 
agents.  As  one  instance  out  of  many:  Captain  John  Vernon  was  em¬ 
ployed  by  the  Commissioners  for  Ireland  into  England,  and  contracted  in 
their  behalf  with  Mr.  David  Sellick  and  Mr.  Leader  under  his  hand, 
bearing  date  the  14th  September,  1653,  to  supply  them  with  two  hundred 
and  fifty  women  of  the  Irish  nation  above  twelve  years,  and  under  the 
age  of  forty-five,  also  three  hundred  men  above  twelve  years  of  age,  and 
under  fifty,  to  be  found  in  the  country  within  twenty  miles  of  Cork, 
Youghal,  and  Kinsale,  Waterford  and  Wexford,  to  transport  them  into 
New  England.”  J.  P.  Prendergast,  The  Cromwellian  Settlement  of 
Ireland,  London,  1865.  2d.  ed.,  pp.  89-90. 

9  “It  is  calculated  that  in  four  years  (1653-1657)  English  firms  of 
slave-dealers  shipped  6,400  Irish  men  and  women,  boys  and  maidens,  to 
the  British  colonies  of  North  America.”  A.  J.  Theband,  The  Irish  Race 
in  the  Past  and  Present,  N.  Y.,  1893,  p.  385. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  9 

No  complete  memorial  has  been  transmitted  of  the 
emigrations  that  took  place  from  Europe  to  America,  but 
(from  the  few  illustrative  facts  actually  preserved)  they 
seem  to  have  been  amazingly  copious.  In  the  years  1771- 
72,  the  number  of  emigrants  to  America  from  the  North 
of  Ireland  alone  amounted  to  17,350.  Almost  all  of  these 
emigrated  at  their  own  charge;  a  great  majority  of  them 
were  persons  employed  in  the  linen  manufacture,  or 
farmers  possessed  of  some  property  which  they  converted 
into  money  and  carried  with  them.  Within  the  first  fort¬ 
night  of  August,  1773,  there  arrived  at  Philadelphia 
3,500  emigrants  from  Ireland,  and  from  the  same  docu¬ 
ment  which  has  recorded  this  circumstance  it  appears  that 
vessels  were  arriving  every  month  freighted  with  emi¬ 
grants  from  Holland,  Germany,  and  especially  from  Ire¬ 
land  and  the  Highlands  of  Scotland.10 

That  many  Irish  settled  in  Maryland  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  in  1699  and  again  a  few  years  later  an  act  was 
passed  to  prevent  too  great  a  number  of  Irish  Papists 
being  imported  into  the  province.11  Shipmasters  were 
required  to  pay  two  shillings  per  poll  for  such.  “Shipping 
records  of  the  colonial  period  show  that  boatload  after 
boatload  left  the  southern  and  eastern  shores  of  Ireland 
for  the  New  World.  Undoubtedly  thousands  of  their 
passengers  were  Irish  of  the  native  stock.”12  So  besides 
the  so-called  Scotch-Irish  from  the  North  of  Ireland,  the 
distinction  always  being  Protestantism,  not  race,  it  is  in¬ 
disputable  that  thousands,  Celtic  in  race  and  Catholic  in 
religion,  came  to  the  colonies.  These  newcomers  made 

10  Rev.  T.  A.  Spencer,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  p.  305. 

11  Henry  Pratt  Fairchild,  Immigration:  A  "world  movement,  and  its 
American  significance,  N.  Y.,  1913*  P*  47*  See  also  Archives  of  Mary¬ 
land,  Vol.  22,  p.  497. 

12  Charles  A.  and  Mary  R.  Beard,  History  of  the  United  States, 
N.  Y.,  1921,  p.  11. 


io  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

» 

their  homes  principally  in  Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  Mary¬ 
land,  the  Carolinas  and  the  frontiers  of  the  New  England 
colonies.  Later  they  pushed  on  westward  and  founded 
Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  An  interesting  essay 
by  the  well-known  writer,  Irvin  S.  Cobb,  on  The  Lost 
Irish  Tribes  in  the  South  is  an  important  contribution  to 
this  subject. 

The  Germans  were  the  next  most  important  element  of 
the  early  population  of  America.  A  number  of  the  arti¬ 
sans  and  carpenters  in  the  first  Jamestown  colony  were  of 
German  descent.  In  1710,  a  body  of  3,000  Germans 
came  to  New  York  —  the  largest  number  of  immigrants 
supposed  to  have  arrived  at  one  time  during  the  colonial 
period.18  Most  of  the  early  German  immigrants  settled 
in  New  Jersey,  the  Carolinas,  and  Pennsylvania.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  at  the  end  of  the  colonial  period  the 
number  of  Germans  was  fully  two  hundred  thousand. 

Though  the  Irish  and  the  Germans  contributed  most 
largely  to  colonial  immigration,  as  distinguished  from  the 
English,  who  are  classed  as  the  Colonials,  there  were 
other  races  who  came  even  thus  early  to  our  shores.  The 
Huguenots  came  from  France  to  escape  religious  persecu¬ 
tion.  The  Jews,  then  as  ever,  engaged  in  their  age-old 
struggle  for  religious  and  economic  toleration,  came  from 
England,  France,  Spain  and  Portugal.  The  Dutch  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  New  Amsterdam,  fearing  their  commercial 
competition,  ordered  a  group  of  Portuguese  Jews  to  leave 
the  colony,  but  this  decision  was  appealed  to  the  home 
Government  at  Holland  and  reversed,  so  that  they  were 
allowed  to  remain.  On  the  whole,  their  freedom  to  live 
and  to  trade  in  the  colonies  was  so  much  greater  than  in 
their  former  homes  that  there  were  soon  flourishing 


13  Fairchild,  p.  35. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  i  i 


colonies  of  Jewish  merchants  in  Newport,  Philadelphia 
and  Charleston. 

In  1626  a  company  of  Swedish  merchants  organized, 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Great  King  Gustavus  Adol¬ 
phus,  to  promote  immigration  to  America.  The  King 
contributed  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  the  capital 
raised,  but  did  not  live  to  see  the  fruition  of  his  plans. 
In  1637,  the  first  company  of  Swedes  and  Finns  left 
Stockholm  for  America.  They  reached  Delaware  Bay 
and  called  the  country  New  Sweden.  The  Dutch  claimed, 
by  right  of  priority,  this  same  territory  and  in  1655  the 
flag  of  Holland  replaced  that  of  Sweden.  The  small 
Swedish  colony  in  Delaware  came  under  Penn’s  rule  and 
became,  like  Pennsylvania,  cosmopolitan  in  character. 

The  Dutch  in  New  York  preserved  their  racial  charac¬ 
teristics  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  the  English 
conquest  of  1664.  At  the  end  of  the  colonial  period,  over 
one-half  of  the  170,000  inhabitants  of  New  York  were 
descendants  of  the  original  Dutch. 

Many  of  the  immigrants  who  came  here  in  the  early 
days  paid  their  own  passage.  However,  the  actual  num¬ 
ber  of  such  is  only  a  matter  of  conjecture.  From  the 
shipping  records  of  the  period  we  do  know  positively  that 
thousands  came  who  were  unable  to  pay.  Shipowners  and 
others  who  had  the  means  furnished  the  passage  money 
to  those  too  poor  to  pay  for  themselves,  and  in  return  re¬ 
ceived  from  these  persons  a  promise  or  bond.  This  bond 
provided  that  the  person  named  in  it  should  work  for  a 
certain  number  of  years  to  repay  the  money  advanced. 
Such  persons  were  called  “indentured  servants”  and  they 
were  found  throughout  the  colonies,  working  in  the  fields, 
the  shops  and  the  homes  of  the  colonists.  The  term  of 
service  was  from  five  to  seven  years.  Many  found  it 


1 2  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 


impossible  to  meet  their  obligations  and  their  servitude 
dragged  on  for  years.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  became 
free  and  prosperous.  In  Pennsylvania  often  there  were 
as  many  as  fifty  bond  servants  on  estates.  The  condition 
of  indentured  servants  in  Virginia  “was  little  better  than 
that  of  slaves.  Loose  indentures  and  harsh  laws  put  them 
at  the  mercy  of  their  masters.”14  This  seems  to  have  been 
their  fate  in  all  the  colonies,  as  their  treatment  depended 
upon  the  character  of  their  masters. 

Besides  these  indentured  servants  who  came  here  vol¬ 
untarily,  a  large  number  of  early  settlers  were  forced  to 
come  here.  The  Irish  before  mentioned  are  one  example. 
In  order  to  secure  settlers,  men,  women  and  children  were 
kidnapped  from  the  cities  and  towns  and  “spirited  away” 
to  America  by  the  companies  and  proprietors  who  had 
colonies  here.  In  1680  it  was  officially  computed  that 
10,000  were  sent  thus  to  American  shores.  In  1627, 
about  1,500  children  were  shipped  to  Virginia,  probably 
orphans  and  dependents  whom  their  relatives  were  un¬ 
willing  to  support.15  Another  class  sent  here  were  con¬ 
victs,  the  scourings  of  English  centers  like  Bristol  and 
Liverpool.  The  colonists  protested  vehemently  against  this 
practise,  but  it  was  continued  up  to  the  very  end  of  the 
colonial  period,  when  this  convict  tide  was  diverted  to 
“Botany  Bay.” 

In  1619,  another  race  was  brought  here  against  their 
will  and  sold  into  slavery.  This  was  the  Negro,  forced  to 
leave  his  home  near  the  African  equator  that  he  might 
contribute  to  the  material  wealth  of  shipmasters  and 
planters.  Slowly  but  surely  chattel  slavery  took  firm  root 
in  the  South  and  at  last  became  the  leading  source  of  the 

14  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  A  Short  History  of  the  English  Colonies  In 
America,  N.  Y.,  1881,  p.  70. 

15  Beard,  p.  15. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  13 

labor  supply.  The  slave  traders  found  it  very  easy  to 
seize  Negroes  in  Africa  and  make  great  profits  by  selling 
them  in  Southern  ports.  The  English  Royal  African 
Company  sent  to  America  annually  between  1713  and 
1743  from  5,000  to  10,000  slaves.16  After  a  time,  when 
the  Negroes  were  so  numerous  that  whole  sections  were 
overrun,  the  Southern  colonies  tried  ineffectually  to  curb 
the  trade.  Virginia  in  1710  placed  a  duty  of  five  pounds 
on  each  slave  but  the  Royal  Governor  vetoed  the  bill. 
Bills  of  like  import  were  passed  in  other  colonies  from 
time  to  time,  but  the  English  crown  disapproved  in  every 
instance  and  the  trade,  so  lucrative  to  British  shipowners, 
went  on.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  there  were 
almost  half  a  million  slaves  in  the  colonies.17  The  exact 
proportions  of  the  slave  trade  to  America  can  be  but 
approximately  determined.  From  1680  to  1688  the 
African  Company  sent  249  ships  to  Africa,  shipped  there 
60,783  Negro  slaves,  and  after  losing  14,387  on  the 
middle  passage,  delivered  46,396  in  America.  The  trade 
increased  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  104  ships  clear¬ 
ing  for  Africa  in  1701;  it  then  dwindled  until  the  sign¬ 
ing  of  the  Assiento,  standing  at  74  clearances  in  1724. 
The  final  dissolution  of  the  monopoly  in  1750  led  —  ex¬ 
cepting  in  the  years  1754-57,  when  the  closing  of  Spanish 
marts  sensibly  affected  the  trade  —  to  an  extraordinary 
development,  192  clearances  being  made  in  1771.  The 
Revolutionary  War  nearly  stopped  the  traffic,  but  by 
1786  the  clearances  had  risen  again  to  146. 

To  these  figures  must  be  added  the  unregistered  trade 
of  Americans  and  foreigners.  It  is  probable  that  about 
25,000  slaves  were  brought  to  America  each  year  between 

16  Beard,  p.  1 6. 

17  W.  S.  Burghardt  DuBois,  Suppression  of  the  Slave  Trade,  Harvard 
Historical  Studies,  No.  i,  p.  5. 


14  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

1698  and  1707.  The  importation  then  dwindled  but  after 
the  Assiento  rose  to  perhaps  30,000.  The  proportion 
of  these  slaves  carried  to  the  continent  now  began  to 
increase.  Of  about  20,000  whom  the  English  annually 
imported  from  1733  to  1766,  South  Carolina  alone  re¬ 
ceived  some  3,000.  Before  the  Revolution  the  total  ex¬ 
portation  to  America  is  variously  estimated  as  between 
40,000  and  100,000  each  year.  Bancroft  places  the  total 
slave  population  of  the  continental  colonies  at  59,000  in 
1714;  78,000  in  1727;  and  293,000  in  1754.  The  census 
of  1790  showed  697,897  slaves  in  the  United  States.  Not 
all  the  Negroes  who  came  to  America  were  slaves  and 
not  all  remained  slaves.  There  were  the  following  free 
Negroes  in  the  decades  between  1790  and  i860; 


1790  .  59,557 

1800  .  108,435 

1810  .  186,446 

1820  .  233,634 

1830  .  319,599 

1840  .  386,293 

1850  .  434,495 

i860 .  488,070 


Immigration  of  Negroes  is  still  taking  place,  especially 
from  the  West  Indies.  It  has  been  estimated  that  there 
are  the  following  foreign-born  Negroes  in  the  United 
States: 

1890  . 19,979 

1900  .  20,336 

1910  . 40,339 

1920  .  75,ooo 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  15 

In  1790,  Negroes  were  one-fifth  of  the  total  population; 
in  i860  they  were  one-seventh;  in  1900  one-ninth;18 
to-day  they  are  approximately  one-tenth. 

With  the  beginning  of  the  national  era — 1783  —  all 
peoples  subsequently  coming  to  the  United  States  must  be 
classed  as  immigrants.  During  the  first  years  of  our 
national  life,  no  accurate  statistics  of  immigration  were 
kept.  The  Federal  Government  took  no  control  of  the 
matter  and  the  State  records  are  incomplete  and  unreli¬ 
able.  A  pamphlet  published  by  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  in 
1903,  Immigration  into  the  United  States,  says,  “The 
best  estimates  of  the  total  immigration  into  the  United 
States  prior  to  the  official  count  puts  the  total  number  of 
arrivals  at  not  to  exceed  250,000  in  the  entire  period 
between  1776  and  1820.” 

From  1806  to  1816,  the  unfriendly  relations  which 
existed  between  the  United  States  and  England  and 
France  precluded  any  extensive  immigration  to  this  coun¬ 
try.  England  maintained  and  for  a  time  successfully  en¬ 
forced  the  doctrine  that  “a  man  once  a  subject  was  always 
a  subject.”  The  American  Merchant  Service,  because  of 
the  pay  and  good  treatment  given,  was  very  attractive  to 
English  sailors  and  a  very  great  enticement  to  them  to 
come  to  America  and  enter  the  American  service.  How¬ 
ever,  the  fear  of  impressment  deterred  many  from  so 
doing.  The  Blockade  Decrees  of  England  against  France 
in  1806  and  the  retaliation  decrees  of  France  against 
England  in  that  same  year  were  other  influences  which  re¬ 
tarded  immigration.  These  decrees  were  succeeded  by 
the  British  Orders  in  Council,  the  Milan  Decree  of 
Napoleon,  and  the  United  States  law  of  1809  prohibiting 
intercourse  with  both  Great  Britain  and  France. 

18  John  R.  Commons,  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,  N.  Y.,  1907, 
P-  53- 


1 6  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

In  1810,  the  French  decrees  were  annulled  and  Ameri¬ 
can  commerce  began  again  with  France,  only  to  have  the 
vessels  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  Then  came  the 
War  of  1812.  The  German  immigration  suffered  greatly 
from  this  condition  of  affairs,  as  the  Germans  sailed 
principally  from  the  ports  of  Liverpool  and  Havre.  At 
these  points  ships  were  more  numerous  and  expenses  less 
heavy.  In  December,  1814,  a  few  days  before  the  Battle 
of  New  Orleans,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  between 
the  United  States  and  England  and  after  a  few  months 
immigration  was  resumed  once  more. 

In  1817,  about  22,240  persons  arrived  at  ports  of  the 
United  States  from  foreign  countries.  This  number  in¬ 
cluded  American  citizens  returning  from  abroad.  In  no 
previous  year  had  so  many  immigrants  come  to  our 
shores. 

In  1819  a  law  was  passed  by  Congress  and  approved 
by  the  President  “regulating  passenger  ships  and  vessels.” 
In  1820,  the  official  history  of  immigration  began.  The 
Port  Collectors  then  began  to  keep  records  which  included 
numbers,  sexes,  ages,  and  occupations  of  all  incoming 
persons.  However,  up  to  1856,  no  distinction  was  made 
between  travellers  and  immigrants. 

Immigration  increased  from  8,358  in  1820  —  of  which 
6,024  came  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  —  to  22,633 
in  183 1.19  The  decade  of  the  twenties  was  a  time  of 
great  industrial  activity  in  the  United  States.  The  Erie 
Canal  was  built,  other  canals  were  projected,  the  rail¬ 
roads  were  started,  business  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
As  a  consequence,  the  demand  for  labor  was  imperative 
and  Europe  responded.  During  the  entire  period  of  our 

19  Adam  Seybert,  Statistical  Annals  of  the  United  States ,  Phlla.,  1818, 
p.  29. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  i  7 

early  national  life,  the  United  States  encouraged  the 
coming  of  foreign  artisans  and  laborers  as  the  necessity  for 
strength,  skill  and  courage  in  the  upbuilding  of  our  coun¬ 
try  began  to  be  realized. 

From  1831  the  number  of  immigrants  steadily  in¬ 
creased  until  from  September  30,  1849,  to  September  30, 
1850,  they  totaled  315,334s0  The  largest  increases  dur¬ 
ing  those  years  were  from  1845  to  1848,  when  the  famine 
in  Ireland  and  the  revolution  in  Germany  drove  thou¬ 
sands  to  the  shores  of  free  America.  These  causes  con¬ 
tinued  to  increase  the  number  of  arrivals  until  in  1854 
the  crest  was  attained  with  460, 474s  1  —  a  figure  not  again 
reached  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

From  September  30,  1819,  when  the  official  count  of 
immigrants  began  to  be  taken,  to  December  31,  1855,  a 
total  of  4,212,624  persons  of  foreign  birth  arrived  in  the 
United  States.22  Of  these  Bromwell,  who  wrote  in  1856 
a  work  compiled  entirely  from  official  data,  estimates  that 
1,747,930  were  Irish.28  Next  comes  Germany,24  with 
1,206,087;  England  third  with  207,492;  France  fourth 
with  188,725. 

The  exodus  of  the  Irish  during  those  famine  years  fur¬ 
nishes  one  of  the  many  examples  recorded  in  history  of  a 
subject  race  driven  from  its  home  by  the  economic  in¬ 
justice  of  a  dominant  race.  Later,  we  see  the  same  thing 
true  in  Austria-Hungary  where  the  Slavs  were  tyrannized 
by  the  Magyars;  again  we  find  it  in  Russia  where  the 
Jew  sought  freedom  from  the  Slav;  and  once  again  in 
Armenia  and  Syria  where  the  native  people  fled  from  the 
Turk. 

20  Young,  Special  Report  on  Immigration,  Phila.,  1871,  p.  5. 

21  Bromwell,  p.  145. 

22  Ibid.,  p.  16. 

23  Ibid.,  p.  18. 

21  Ibid.,  pp.  16-17. 


1 8  Racial  Contributions  to  the  U nited  States 

After  1855,  the  tide  of  immigration  began  to  decrease 
steadily.  During  the  first  two  years  of  the  Civil  War, 
it  was  less  than  100,000. 2  5  In  1863,  an  increase  was 
noticeable  again  and  3 95,92226  immigrants  are  recorded 
in  1869. 

During  all  these  years  up  to  1870,  the  great  part  of  the 
immigration  was  from  Northern  Europe.  The  largest 
racial  groups  were  composed  of  Irish,  Germans,  Scandin¬ 
avians  and  French.  About  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century  French-speaking  Canadians  were  attracted  by  the 
opportunities  for  employment  in  the  mills  and  factories  of 
New  England. 

The  number  of  Irish  coming  here  steadily  decreased 
after  1880  until  it  has  fallen  far  below  that  of  other 
European  peoples.  Altogether,  the  total  Irish  immigra¬ 
tion  from  1820  to  1906  is  placed  at  something  over 
4,000,000,  thus  giving  the  Irish  second  place  as  contribu¬ 
tors  to  the  foreign-born  population  of  the  United  States. 
The  Revolution  of  1848  was  the  contributing  cause  of  a 
large  influx  of  Germans,  many  of  whom  were  professional 
men  and  artisans.  From  1873  to  1879  there  was  great 
industrial  depression  in  Germany  and  consequently  an¬ 
other  large  immigration  to  America  took  place.  Since 
1882,  there  has  also  been  a  noticeable  decline  in  German 
immigrants.  From  1820  to  1903,  a  total  of  over  5,000,- 
OOO  Germans  was  recorded  as  coming  to  the  United 
States.27 

In  the  period  from  1880  to  19 10  immigration  from 
Italy  totaled  4,018,404.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the 
law  requiring  the  registration  of  outgoing  aliens  was  not 
passed  until  1908,  and  it  may,  therefore,  be  estimated  that 

2  E  Young,  p.  6. 

2  ®  Ibid.,  p.  6. 

8 T  Special  Consular  Reports,  Vol.  30,  p.  8. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  19 

3,000,000  represents  the  total  number  of  arrivals  from 
Italy,  who  remained  here  permanently. 

After  1903,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  the 
number  of  alien  arrivals  steadily  increased.  In  1905,  it 
was  more  than  1,000,000;  in  1906,  it  passed  the  1,100,000 
mark  and  in  1907  the  1,200,000  mark;  in  1913  and  1914, 
the  total  number  for  each  year  exceeded  i,400,000.28 

During  the  ten  years  from  1905  to  1915,  nearly  12,- 
000,000  aliens  landed  in  the  United  States,  a  yearly  aver¬ 
age  of  1,200,000  arrivals.  These  alone  form  more  than 
37  per  cent,  of  all  recorded  immigration  since  1820  and 
make  up  about  88  out  of  every  100  of  our  present  total 
foreign-born  population.29.  Until  interrupted  by  the 
European  War,  the  immigration  to  the  United  States  was 
the  greatest  movement  of  the  largest  number  of  peoples 
that  the  world  has  ever  known.  Of  course,  there  have 
been  economic  upheavals  from  time  to  time  which  have 
noticeably  affected  this  movement.  The  Civil  War,  as 
before  noted,  and  financial  panics  and  industrial  depres¬ 
sions  in  our  country  interrupted  the  incoming  tide  re¬ 
peatedly.  The  Great  War  with  its  social  and  economic 
upheaval  had  a  tremendous  effect  on  our  immigration. 
The  twelve  months  following  the  declaration  of  war 
shows  the  smallest  number  of  alien  arrivals  since  1899. 
The  number  was  slightly  over  325,000.  The  statistics 
compiled  by  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Immigration  show 
that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  immigrants  who  come 
to  the  United  States  are  from  Europe.  Of  the  1,403,000 
alien  immigrants  who  came  here  in  1914,  about  1,114,000 
were  from  Europe;  about  35,000  came  from  Asia;  the 
remainder,  about  254,000,  came  from  all  other  countries 

28  Immigration  and  Emigration,  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Washing¬ 
ton,  1915,  p.  1099. 

29  Ibid. 


20  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

combined,  principally  Canada,  the  West  Indies,  and 
Mexico.  Eighty  out  of  every  ioo,  therefore,  came  from 
Europe.  As  many  as  sixty  of  that  eighty  came  from  the 
three  countries  of  Italy,  Austria-Hungary  and  Russia. 
Italy  sent  294,689;  Austria-Hungary  was  second  with 
286,059;  Russian  contributed  262,409.  From  all  of  Eng¬ 
land,  Ireland,  Scotland  and  Wales  came  only  88,000  or 
about  6  out  of  every  100;  and  from  Norway,  Sweden  and 
Denmark  came  about  31,000  or  2  out  of  every  IOO. 

Greece,  France,  Portugal,  Bulgaria,  Montenegro, 
Spain,  Turkey,  the  Netherlands,  Belgium,  Switzerland, 
and  Roumania  contributed  virtually  all  the  remainder  of 
our  1914  immigrants  from  Europe,  given  in  the  order  of 
importance. 

However,  we  should  bear  in  mind  always  that  the 
country  of  origin  or  nationality  or  jurisdiction  (as  deter¬ 
mined  by  political  boundaries)  is  not  always  identical  with 
race.  Immigration  statistics  have  followed  national  or 
political  boundaries.  Take  the  immigrants  from  Russia. 
The  statistics  say  that  262,000  arrived  from  that  country 
in  1914.  But  of  this  number,  less  than  5  out  of  every  100 
are  Russians;  the  rest  or  95  out  of  every  100,  are  He¬ 
brews,  Poles,  Lithuanians,  Finns  and  Germans. 

Austria-Hungary  was  another  country  made  of  a  med¬ 
ley  of  races.  The  Germanic  Austrians  who  ruled  Austria 
and  the  Hungarian  Magyars  who  ruled  Hungary  were 
less  than  one-half  of  the  total  population  of  the  one 
time  Austria-Hungary. 

The  record  of  alien  arrivals  from  Poland  is  not  accu¬ 
rate  because  it  is  divided  into  three  national  statistical 
divisions  —  Russia,  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary. 
The  best  estimate  is  that  the  total  Polish  arrivals  to  the 
United  States  since  1820  approximates  2,500,000. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  21 


The  Slav,  the  Magyar,  the  German,  the  Latin,  and  the 
Jew  were  all  in  Austria-Hungary  and  moreover,  these 
were  all  numerously  subdivided.  The  most  numerous  of 
the  Slavs  are  the  Czechs  and  Slovaks.  These  gave  the 
United  States  in  1914  a  combined  immigration  of  37,000. 
Poles,  Ruthenians  and  Roumanians  also  came  here  from 
northern  Austria,  and  from  the  vicinity  of  the  Black  Sea 
came  Roumanians  more  Latin  than  Slavic.  Besides  these, 
the  one  time  dual  kingdom  sent  Jews,  Greeks  and  Turks. 

Although  the  most  important  Slavic  country  of  Europe 
is  Russia,  yet  it  was  from  Austria-Hungary  that  we  re¬ 
ceived  most  of  our  Slavic  immigrants.  In  1914,  as  many 
as  23  out  of  every  100  of  our  total  immigration  were 
Slavic,  and  the  larger  part  of  this  racial  group  which 
reached  319,000  that  year,  came  from  Austria-Hungary. 

That  mere  recording  of  country  or  origin  does  not  give 
accurate  racial  information  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
many  Greeks  under  Turkish  rule,  and  the  large  number 
of  Armenians  found  in  almost  all  large  Turkish  towns. 
The  Armenians  are  probably  the  most  numerous  of  the 
immigrants  from  Asia.  In  1914,  the  total  immigration 
from  Turkey  was  about  20,000,  but  the  actual  Turkish 
immigration  was  only  3,000.  The  remaining  27,000  were 
Greeks,  Bulgarians,  Serbians,  Montenegrins,  Syrians, 
Armenians  and  Hebrews.80 

The  “country  of  origin”  tells  us  almost  nothing  about 
the  large  Hebrew  immigration  which  comes  to  the  United 
States.  The  Jew  comes  from  many  countries.  The 
greater  part  of  all  our  recent  Jewish  immigration  comes 
from  Russia,  from  what  is  called  the  “Jewish  Pale  of 
Settlement”  in  the  western  part  of  that  country.  Other 
Jews  ccme  from  Austria,  Roumania,  Germany  and  Tur- 

so  Reports  of  Department  of  Labor ,  Washington,  1915. 


22  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

key.  In  1914,  the  Jews  were  the  fourth  largest  in  num¬ 
bers  among  our  immigrants,  nearly  143, ooo.31 

We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  all  of  these  millions 
who  came  to  America  do  not  remain  with  us.  There  is  a 
constant  emigration  going  on,  a  departure  of  aliens  back 
to  their  native  land  either  for  a  time,  or  for  all  time.  Up 
to  1908,  the  Bureau  of  Immigration  kept  no  record  of  the 
“ebb  of  the  tide”  but  since  that  time  vessels  taking  aliens 
out  of  the  United  States,  are  obliged  by  law  to  make  a  list 
containing  name,  age,  sex,  nationality,  residence  in  the 
United  States,  occupation,  and  time  of  last  arrival  of  each 
alien  passenger,  which  must  be  filed  with  the  Federal 
Collector  of  Customs. 

The  first  year  of  this  record,  1908,  followed  the  finan¬ 
cial  panic  of  October,  1907,  and  due  to  the  economic 
conditions  prevalent  in  the  United  States  a  very  large 
emigration  to  Europe  was  disclosed. 

The  records  show  also  that  the  volume  of  emigration, 
like  that  of  immigration,  varies  from  year  to  year.  Just 
as  prosperity  here  increases  immigration,  “bad”  times  in¬ 
crease  emigration  from  our  shores. 

There  was  a  time  when  emigration  was  so  slight  that  it 
was  of  little  importance,  but  since  the  early  nineties  it 
has  assumed  large  proportions.  After  the  panic  of  1907, 
for  months  a  larger  number  left  the  country  than  came 
into  it,  and  thousands  and  thousands  swarmed  the  ports 
of  departure  awaiting  a  chance  to  return  home.  In  the 
earlier  years,  the  immigrant  sometimes  spent  months  mak¬ 
ing  the  journey  here.  Besides  the  difficulty  of  the  trip, 
ocean  transportation  was  more  expensive.  Therefore,  the 
earlier  immigrants  came  to  remain,  to  make  homes  here 
for  themselves  and  their  children.  The  Irish,  the  Ger- 


31  Ibid. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  23 

mans,  the  early  Bohemians,  the  Scandinavians,  and  in  fact 
all  the  early  comers  brought  their  families  and  their 
“household  goods”,  ready  to  settle  down  for  all  time  and 
to  become  citizens  of  their  adopted  country. 

A  large  number  of  the  alien  arrivals  of  recent  years 
come  here  initially  with  only  a  vague  intention  of  remain¬ 
ing  permanently,  and  these  make  up  the  large  emigration 
streaming  constantly  from  our  ports.  However,  it  is 
only  fair  to  say  that  eventually  many  of  these  people  come 
back  to  America  and  become  permanent  residents.  Any¬ 
one  who  has  had  experience  at  our  ports  of  entry  can  sub¬ 
stantiate  the  statement  that  during  a  period  of  years  the 
same  faces  are  seen  incoming  again  and  again. 

Although  immigrants  have  come  by  millions  into  the 
United  States,  and  have  been  the  main  contributing  cause 
of  its  wonderful  national  expansion,  yet  opposition  to 
their  coming  has  manifested  itself  strongly  at  different 
times. 

In  the  colonial  period  the  people  objected,  and  rightly, 
to  the  maternal  solicitude  which  England  evidenced  by 
making  the  colonies  the  dumping  ground  for  criminals 
and  undesirables.  However,  these  objections  were  dis¬ 
regarded  and  convicts  and  criminals  continued  to  come 
while  the  colonies  remained  under  British  rule. 

After  the  national  era,  immigration  was  practically 
unrestricted  down  to  1875.  At  different  periods  there 
were  manifestations  of  a  strong  desire  to  restrict  immigra¬ 
tion,  but  Congress  never  responded  with  exclusion  laws. 
The  alien  and  sedition  laws  of  1798  had  for  their  object 
the  removal  of  foreigners  already  residents  in  the  United 
States.  The  naturalization  laws  passed  that  same  year, 
lengthening  the  time  of  residence  necessary  for  citizenship 
to  fourteen  years,  were  another  severe  measure  against 


24  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

resident  aliens.  The  native  American  and  the  Know- 
nothing  uprisings  were  still  other  indications  of  that  same 
spirit  of  antagonism  to  the  alien  based  on  religious 
grounds.  This  religious  antagonism  in  many  of  the  States 
took  the  form  of  opposition  to  immigration  itself  and  a 
demand  for  restrictions.  But  this  all  proved  futile,  for 
the  National  Government  recognized  the  necessity  of 
settling  the  limitless  West.  Then,  too,  another  subject 
loomed  large  and  threatening  at  this  time,  and  engrossed 
the  attention  of  the  people  away  from  the  dire  evils  which 
the  Irish  and  the  Catholics  would  precipitate  upon  “our 
free  and  happy  people”.  This  was  the  State  Rights  and 
Slavery  question ;  and  soon  the  country  forgot  immigra¬ 
tion  in  the  throes  of  the  Civil  War. 

By  an  act  of  March  3,  1875,  the  National  Government 
made  its  first  attempt  to  restrict  immigration;  this  act 
prohibited  the  bringing  in  of  alien  convicts  and  of  women 
for  immoral  purposes.  On  May  6,  1882,  Congress  passed 
and  the  President  approved  another  act  “to  regulate 
immigration”,  by  which  the  coming  of  Chinese  laborers 
was  forbidden  for  ten  years.  The  story  which  led  up  to 
this  Act  of  Congress  is  a  long  one,  and  the  details  cannot 
be  given  here.  Briefly,  conditions  in  California  following 
the  Burlingame  treaty  of  1868,  owning  to  the  influx  of 
Chinese  labor,  resulted  in  the  organization  of  a  working¬ 
man’s  party  headed  by  Dennis  Kearney,  and  forced  the 
Chinese  question  as  one  of  the  dominant  issues  of  State 
politics.  Resolutions  embodying  the  feelings  of  the  people 
on  Chinese  immigration  were  presented  to  the  Constitu¬ 
tional  Convention  of  1879.  The  State  Legislature  en¬ 
acted  laws  against  this  immigration.  Subsequently  pres¬ 
sure  was  brought  to  bear  on  the  National  Government,  a 
new  treaty  with  China  was  negotiated,  and  finally  the  law 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  25 

of  1882  was  passed  by  Congress,  restricting  for  ten  years 
the  admission  of  Chinese  laborers,  both  skilled  and  un¬ 
skilled,  and  of  mine  workers  also. 

Ever  since  the  passage  of  this  law,  the  Federal  Govern¬ 
ment  has  pursued  a  more  restrictive  and  exclusive  immi¬ 
gration  policy.  The  next  law  was  passed  in  August,  1882, 
prohibiting  the  immigration  of  “any  convict,  lunatic,  idiot, 
or  any  person  unable  to  take  care  of  himself  or  herself 
without  becoming  a  public  charge.”  Then,  in  1885,  came 
another  act  known  as  the  “Alien  Contract  Labor  Law”, 
forbidding  the  importation  and  immigration  of  foreigners 
and  aliens  under  contract  or  agreement  to  perform  labor 
in  the  United  States.  In  1891  came  the  law  called  the 
“Geary  Act”  which  amended  “the  various  acts  relative  to 
immigration  and  the  importation  of  aliens  under  contract 
or  agreement  to  perform  labor”.  This  act  extended 
Chinese  exclusion  for  another  ten  years,  and  required  the 
Chinese  in  the  country  to  register  and  submit  to  the 
Bertillon  test  as  a  means  of  identification.  In  1893  two 
acts  were  passed ;  one  which  gave  the  quarantine  service 
greater  powers  and  placed  additional  duties  upon  the 
Public  Health  Service,  and  another  which  properly  en¬ 
forced  the  existing  immigration  and  contract  labor  laws. 
In  1902  the  law  of  exclusion  was  made  permanent  against 
Chinese  laborers.  So,  since  1875,  the  United  States  has 
passed  laws  excluding  Chinese  entirely  and  virtually  ex¬ 
cluding  the  Japanese,  and  both  these  races  are  ineligible 
to  citizenship.  In  1907,  an  act  was  passed  “to  regulate 
the  immigration  of  Aliens  into  the  United  States”,  which 
excluded  imbeciles,  epileptics,  those  so  defective  either 
physically  or  mentally  that  they  might  become  public 
charges;  children  under  sixteen  not  with  a  parent,  etc. 

A  far  more  restrictive  measure  known  as  the  “literacy” 


26  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

or  “educational”  test  has  been  before  Congress  at  different 
times  and  has,  on  three  different  occasions,  falied  to  be¬ 
come  a  law.  President  Cleveland  vetoed  it  in  1897,  Taft 
in  1913,  and  Wilson  in  1915.  All  three  Presidents  ob¬ 
jected  to  this  bill  principally  on  the  ground  that  it  was 
such  “a  radical  departure”  from  all  previous  national 
policy  in  regard  to  immigration.  President  Wilson’s  veto 
of  1917  was  overcome  and  the  bill  became  a  law  by  a 
two-thirds  majority  vote  of  both  houses.  This  law  re¬ 
quires  that  entering  aliens  must  be  able  to  read  the  English 
language  or  some  other  language  or  dialect.  The  one 
thing  which  the  literacy  test  was  designed  to  accomplish 
—  to  decrease  the  volume  of  immigration  —  was  brought 
about  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  by  the  European  War. 
From  the  opening  of  the  war,  the  number  of  immigrants 
steadily  decreased  until,  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1916,  it  was  only  298, 82632  and  for  the  year  ending  June 
30,  1917,  only  iio,6i8.33  Then  it  began  again  to  in¬ 
crease  steadily  until  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1920, 
it  reached  a  total  of  430,001.® 4 

On  June  3,  1921,  an  emergency  measure  known  as  the 
three  per  cent,  law  was  passed.  This  act  provided  that 
the  number  of  aliens  of  any  nationality  who  could  be 
admitted  to  the  United  States  in  any  one  year  should  be 
limited  to  three  per  cent,  of  the  number  of  foreign-born 
persons  of  such  nationality  resident  in  the  United  States 
as  determined  by  the  census  of  1910.  Certain  ones  were 
not  counted,  such  as  foreign  government  officials  and  their 
families  and  employees,  aliens  in  transit  through  the 
United  States,  tourists,  aliens  from  countries  having  im¬ 
migration  treaties  with  the  United  States,  aliens  who 

32  Reports  of  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  1918,  p.  208. 

33  Reports  of  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  1920,  p.  400. 

34  Reports  of  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  1921,  p.  365. 


Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States  27 

have  lived  for  one  year  previous  to  their  admission  in 
Canada,  Newfoundland,  Mexico,  Central  America,  or 
South  America,  and  aliens  under  eighteen  who  have  par¬ 
ents  who  are  American  citizens.  More  than  twenty  per 
cent,  of  a  country’s  full  quota  could  not  be  admitted  in 
one  month  except  in  the  case  of  actors,  artists,  lecturers, 
singers,  nurses,  clergymen,  professors,  members  of  the 
learned  professions  or  domestic  servants  who  could  always 
come  in  even  though  the  month’s  or  the  year’s  quota  had 
been  used. 

A  well  organized  effort  is  under  way  in  the  Congress 
which  began  its  session  in  December  1923,  to  reduce  the 
quota  to  two  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants  recorded  as 
coming  to  the  United  States  in  1890.  This  bill,  which 
will  probably  be  passed,  is  being  opposed  vigorously,  by 
the  Jews  and  Italians  who  are  immediately  the  particular 
racial  groups  to  be  affected,  but  since  neither  the  Jews 
nor  Italians,  separately  or  collectively,  have  political 
strength  to  be  a  voting  factor  to  be  considered,  except  in 
a  half  dozen  of  the  industrial  states,  the  passage  of  the 
bill  seems  to  be  inevitable. 

The  recent  immigration  restriction  laws  make  a  de¬ 
cided  break  with  past  national  history  and  tradition. 
There  is  little  doubt  that  these  laws  are  in  part  the  fruit 
of  an  organized  movement  which,  especially  since  the  war, 
is  attempting  to  classify  all  aliens,  except  those  of  one 
special  group,  as  “hyphenates”  and  “mongrels”.  These 
laws  are  haphazard,  unscientific,  based  on  unworthy  preju¬ 
dice  and  likely,  ultimately,  to  be  disastrous  in  their  eco¬ 
nomic  consequences.  The  present  three  per  cent,  immi¬ 
gration  law  is  not  based  on  any  fundamental  standard  of 
fitness.  Once  the  percentage  of  maximum  admissions  is 
reached,  in  any  given  month,  the  next  alien  applying  for 


28  Racial  Contributions  to  the  United  States 

entrance  may  be  a  potential  Washington,  Lincoln  or 
Edison  to  whom  the  unyielding  process  of  the  law  must 
deny  admission.  Such  laws,  worked  out  under  the  hysteria 
of  “after  war  psychology”,  seem  to  be  one  of  the  instances, 
so  frequent  in  history,  where  Democracy  must  take  time 
to  work  out  its  own  mistakes. 

Under  the  circumstances,  there  is  all  the  more  reason 
that  the  priceless  heritage  of  racial  achievement  by  the 
descendants  of  various  racial  groups  in  the  United  States 
be  told. 

The  United  States  has  departed  a  long  way  from  the 
policy  which  was  recorded  in  1795  by  the  series  of  coins 
known  as  the  “Liberty  and  Security”  coins,  on  which 
appeared  the  words  “A  Refuge  for  the  Oppressed  of  all 
Nations”. 


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I 


THE  JEWS  IN  THE  MAKING 
OF  AMERICA 


THE  JEWS  IN  THE  MAKING 
OF  AMERICA 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  JEWS  AND  THE  DISCOVERY  OF 

AMERICA 

“History  repeats  itself  and  historians  repeat 
each  other,”  remarked  once  the  witty  English 
writer,  Max  Beerbohm.  It  is  perhaps,  due  to  this 
dominant  instinct  in  historians  for  repetition  that 
we  owe  the  wide  prevalence  of  the  legend  concern¬ 
ing  Isabella  and  her  jewels.  Research  has  already 
relegated  the  story  to  the  realm  of  the  imagina¬ 
tive,  but  it  seems  to  persist  with  all  the  vitality  of 
untruth.  In  explaining  the  voyage  of  Columbus 
it  would  be  much  more  appropriate  to  apply  the 
injunction  of  James  Russell  Lowell,  “cherchez  le 
Juif”  (look  for  the  Jew),  and  then  we  could  ap¬ 
proach  the  realm  of  historical  reality. 

“Not  jewels,  but  Jews,  were  the  real  financial 
basis  of  the  first  expedition  of  Columbus,”  wrote 
the  late  Prof.  Herbert  B.  Adams  in  one  of  the  his- 

33 


34  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

torical  studies  published  by  Johns  Hopkins  Uni¬ 
versity  (Series  Z  Columbus  and  His  Discovery  of 
America).  His  verdict  was  based  on  the  work 
of  Prof.  Moses  Kayserling,  the  great  Jewish 
scholar  of  Budapest,  who  unearthed  a  mass  of 
new  historical  data  concerning  Spanish  Jewish  his¬ 
tory.  The  latter’s  volume  entitled  “Christopher 
Columbus  and  the  Participation  of  the  Jews  in  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  Discoveries”  was  instru¬ 
mental  in  revealing  for  the  first  time  the  relation 
between  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  and  the 
dissolution  of  Spanish  Jewry  in  the  old  world. 

The  Spanish  Court  was  lukewarm  to  the  whole 
proposition  which  Columbus  laid  before  it.  He 
had  demanded  from  the  Spanish  sovereigns  that 
in  case  the  venture  succeeded  he  would  be  given 
the  position — Admiral,  Viceroy  and  Life  Gover¬ 
nor  of  the  new  possessions.  This  the  court  re¬ 
fused,  and  Columbus  began  to  try  his  fortune  with 
the  French  rulers.  What  the  ultimate  outcome 
of  the  venture  would  have  been  is  difficult  to  say 
had  there  not  stepped  in  at  this  psychological 
moment  the  figure  of  a  Jew. 

Luis  de  Santangel  was  the  chief  sponsor  of 
Columbus  at  the  court  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
His  family  was  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  power¬ 
ful  in  Valencia  and  Saragossa.  Like  most  of  the 
Marranos  (secret  Jews)  they  bitterly  fought  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  35 

introduction  of  the  Inquisition.  The  family  was 
imprisoned  and  later  some  of  its  members  were 
burned  at  the  stake.  The  first  two  who  paid  the 
supreme  penalty  for  practicing  Jewish  rites,  were 
Martin  de  Santangel  who  was  burned  in  i486  and 
Mosen  Luis  de  Santangel,  the  father-in-law  of  the 
treasurer  of  Aragon,  Gabriel  Sanchez,  who  was 
burned  July  10,  1489.  Some  of  the  members  be¬ 
came  penitents  and  arrayed  in  their  Sanbenitos 
paraded  publicly  as  a  sign  of  their  renunciation  of 
Judaism. 

Among  the  latter  was  Luis  de  Santangel,  son  of 
Luis  de  Santangel,  farmer  of  royal  taxes  and  cus¬ 
toms  and  nephew  of  Luis  de  Santangel  who  was 
burned  at  the  stake  in  Saragossa.  The  younger  Luis 
was  an  impressive  and  brilliant  personality  and 
despite  his  obvious  Jewish  connections  and  earlier 
faith,  became  a  powerful  figure  at  the  Court  of 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  When  the  King  wrote  to 
him  he  addressed  him  as  “A  Good  Aragonese, 
Excellent  Well-Beloved  Councillor.”  Commerce 
was  the  specialty  of  Luis  de  Santangel.  At  Val¬ 
encia  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  large  mercantile 
house  and  was  also  farmer  of  the  royal  customs. 
He  had  commercial  intercourse  with  Genoese  mer¬ 
chants  long  before  Columbus  came  to  Spain.  It 
was  undoubtedly  through  some  of  these  merchants 
that  Columbus  gained  the  ear  of  Santangel  and 


36  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

won  him  over  to  his  project.  Santangel  became  the 
sponsor  for  Columbus.  Aided  by  the  royal 
Chamberlain,  Juan  Cabrero,  another  secret  Jew, 
he  paved  the  way  for  Columbus’  success.  Juan 
Cabrero,  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing,  though 
some  of  his  relatives  had  been  burned  at  the  stake, 
was  a  great  influence  at  court  and  was  named  by 
Ferdinand  as  one  of  the  executors  of  his  will.  Sev¬ 
eral  others  of  Jewish  blood  took  up  the  cudgels 
for  the  explorer,  among  them  Gabriel  Sanchez, 
treasurer  of  Aragon,  and  Alphonso  Caballeria. 

They  interposed  their  influence  at  the  court  of 
Spain.  Luis  Santangel  particularly  was  grieved 
when  the  negotiations  were  broken  off.  “He  felt 
as  much  sorrow  and  distress”  writes  the  contempo¬ 
rary  historian  Las  Casas  in  his  ‘Historia  de  La 
Indias,’  “as  if  he  himself  had  been  afflicted  with 
some  great  misfortune.”  He  went  to  the  Queen 
and  spoke  lengthily  and  persuasively.  He  ex¬ 
pressed  his  surprise  that  the  Queen  had  not  the 
courage  to  participate  in  a  voyage  which  would 
rebound  greatly  to  the  honor  and  glory  of  the 
country.  Many  eminent  scholars  had  stated  that 
the  plan  was  feasible  and  that  no  valid  arguments 
could  be  adduced  against  it.  If,  as  Columbus  pre¬ 
dicted,  some  other  European  powers  would  have 
the  good  fortune  to  act  as  his  patron  and  to  reap 
the  fruits  of  this  discovery,  the  Kingdom  of  Spain, 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  37 

its  rulers  and  the  whole  nation  would  suffer  much 
shame. 

This  interview,  described  fully  by  Las  Casas, 
was  the  pivotal  point  of  the  whole  undertaking. 
The  Queen  was  persuaded  by  the  force  of  San- 
tangel’s  arguments  to  consent  to  the  undertaking 
but  declared  that  the  financial  resources  of  the 
country  were  depleted.  Santangel  answered  that 
he  would  make  arrangements  to  secure  the  money 
necessary  for  the  voyage  and  would  indeed  be 
pleased  to  perform  so  small  a  service  for  the  King 
and  Queen.  The  story  of  Isabella’s  jewels  is  not 
founded  on  facts.  The  Spanish  Academician 
Cesareo  Fernandez  Duro  has  shown  that  the  tale 
of  the  jewels  was  but  an  invention  intended  to 
glorify  the  Queen. 

The  account  books  which  are  still  preserved  in 
the  Spanish  archives  amply  confirm  the  statement 
that  Santangel  secured  the  money  for  the  voyage. 
He  had  occupied  for  some  time  the  position  of 
treasurer  in  a  secret  fraternity  called  the  Holy 
Brotherhood  and  upon  his  solicitation  and  that  of 
his  friends,  the  money  necessary  for  the  expedition 
was  finally  secured  from  this  organization.  One 
account  book  contains  a  record  of  1,400,000  mara- 
vedis  given  by  Santangel  to  the  Bishop  of  Avila 
for  the  expedition.  Another  record  contains  the 
statement  that  on  May  5th,  1492,  the  sum  of 


38  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

1,140,000  maravedis  was  paid  to  Santangel  in  re¬ 
turn  for  the  money  “which  he  advanced  to  equip 
the  caravels  ordered  by  their  majesties  for  the 
expedition  to  the  West  Indies  and  to  pay  Chris¬ 
topher  Columbus  the  Admiral  of  the  fleet.” 
Again  on  May  20,  1493,  a  date  on  which  Ferdi¬ 
nand  is  known  to  have  occupied  himself  with 
Columbus  and  his  expedition,  the  Treasurer 
General,  Gabriel  Sanchez,  was  ordered  to  pay 
Santangel  the  sum  of  30,000  gold  florins. 

Columbus  was  called  back  by  the  Court’s 
messenger.  He  returned  to  Granada  and  in  April, 
1492,  the  articles  of  agreement  known  as  the 
capitulations  of  Santa  Fe  were  signed  granting 
Columbus  all  he  asked.  The  explorer  then  sailed 
for  the  new  world.  “After  the  [Spanish]  mon- 
archs  had  expelled  all  the  Jews  from  their  king¬ 
doms  and  lands  in  January,  in  that  same  month 
they  commissioned  me  to  undertake  the  voyage  to 
India  with  a  properly  equipped  fleet,”  writes 
Columbus  in  his  diary. 

What  were  the  motives  which  led  Santangel, 
Gabriel  Sanchez,  Juan  de  Cabrero  and  these  other 
Jews  to  support  this  expedition  across  the  un¬ 
fathomed  deep?  Why,  one  is  impelled  to  ask, 
did  the  temporary  severance  of  relations  between 
the  Spanish  Court  and  Columbus  make  Santangel 
so  sad  that,  in  the  words  of  Las  Casas  “he  felt  as 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  39 

much  sorrow  and  distress  as  if  he  himself  had 
been  afflicted  with  some  great  misfortune.” 

No  understanding  of  the  forces  that  made  pos¬ 
sible  the  voyage  of  Columbus  can  be  had  without 
a  conception  of  the  position  of  the  Spanish  Jews. 
The  very  kith  and  kin  of  Santangel  and  the  others 
were  fleeing  in  every  direction.  The  Jews  were 
being  exiled,  but  no  haven  of  refuge  was  open. 
Here  and  there  some  refugees  found  a  rest.  Hol¬ 
land,  Turkey,  North  Africa  and  Italy,  where  in 
the  shadow  of  the  Vatican  they  met  with  great 
tolerance,  accepted  a  number.  Others  drifted  aim¬ 
lessly  on  the  water,  thousands  of  others  were  cap¬ 
tured  by  pirates  and  sold  as  slaves. 

More  than  once  there  must  have  entered  the 
minds  of  Santangel  and  the  others  that  here  in  the 
country  about  to  be  opened  up  to  international 
commerce  a  channel  of  escape  might  be  created  for 
the  fleeing  Jews;  that  now  their  sorely  tried  breth¬ 
ren  would  have  a  chance  to  find  life  and  liberty. 
The  expedition  of  Columbus  was  at  least  some¬ 
thing  to  seize  on,  it  offered  some  hope  of  a  solu¬ 
tion  from  the  insoluble  problem  of  how  to  save 
the  remnants  of  a  once  proud  and  prosperous 
Jewry.  This  feeling  for  kith  and  kin  may  partly 
explain  the  deep  felt  grief  of  Santangel  at  the 
temporary  break  up  of  relations;  this  conception 
of  their  duty  undoubtedly  led  these  Spanish  Jews 


40  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

to  support  Columbus  and  to  make  possible  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  America.  The  judgment  of  Santangel 
was  vindicated  by  history,  for  no  sooner  was 
America  discovered  than  large  numbers  of  Jews 
flocked  to  the  West  Indies  where  they  introduced 
the  cultivation  of  sugar. 

Santangel  was  recognized  by  Columbus  as  being 
the  personality  instrumental  in  the  success  of  the 
expedition.  After  the  explorer  had  discovered 
land,  he  regarded  it  as  his  duty  to  send  the  glad 
tidings  of  his  success,  not  to  the  King  or  to  the 
Queen,  but  to  Santangel.  He  wrote  a  detailed 
account  of  his  voyage.  This  letter  was  written  in 
Spanish  near  the  Canary  Islands  on  February  15, 
1493.  He  made  another  report  to  Sanchez. 
Later,  both  letters  were  sent  to  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  who  received  Columbus  with  much  cere¬ 
mony. 

After  his  return  Columbus  began  preparations 
for  his  second  journey.  The  first  financial  re¬ 
sources  having  been  exhausted  it  became  necessary 
to  look  about  for  new  wealth  which  might  be 
utilized  for  sending  forth  the  squadron  again. 
Ferdinand  did  not  have  to  seek  far,  for  he  had 
ascertained  that  the  Jews,  expelled  from  his  King¬ 
dom,  had  left  behind  them  money  or  its  equivalent 
in  real  and  personal  property  as  well  as  many 
debts  which  they  had  been  unable  to  collect.  Ac- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  41 

cordingly  a  royal  order  was  issued,  in  which  the 
authorities  were  commanded  to  confiscate  for  the 
state  all  the  property  which  had  belonged  to  the 
Jews,  including  that  which  had  been  forcefully 
taken  from  them  by  Christians.  Even  those 
valuables  which  the  fleeing  Jews  had  left  with  their 
baptized  relatives  were  seized  and  converted  into 
money  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  expedition. 
Mantles  which  had  been  used  to  cover  the  scrolls 
of  the  Law  were  seized  and  sold  to  provide  money. 
According  to  a  royal  order  of  May  23rd,  1493,  ^ 
was  from  this  fund  that  10,000  maravedis  were 
paid  to  Columbus  upon  his  return  as  the  reward 
for  him  who  would  sight  land  first.  This  second 
successful  consummation  of  the  voyage  was  made 
possible  to  some  extent  with  money  directly  taken 
from  Jewish  sources. 

Was  Columbus  himself  a  Jew?  The  most 
erudite  protagonist  of  this  theory  is  the  learned 
Spanish  Churchman,  Don  Celso  Garcia  de  la 
Riega,  a  scholar  famous  for  his  researches  on  the 
life  of  the  great  discoverer.  By  referring  to  docu¬ 
ments  in  the  town  of  Pontavedra  in  the  Province 
of  Galicia,  he  demonstrated  that  the  family  of 
Colon  (the  Spanish  form  of  Columbus’  family 
name)  lived  there  between  1428  and  1528.  The 
first  names  found  among  them  were  the  same  as 
prevalent  among  the  relatives  of  the  Spanish 


42  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

admiral.  These  Colons  and  the  Fonterossa  family 
intermarried.  The  latter,  asserts  Garcia  de  la 
Riega,  were  undoubtedly  Jewish  or  had  been  re¬ 
cently  converted  to  Catholicism.  Christopher’s 
mother  was  a  Fonterossa.  When  disorders  broke 
out,  the  parents  of  the  discoverer  went  from  Spain 
to  Italy  and  settled  there.  Furthermore,  asserts 
this  scholar,  both  the  Jewish  appearance  of  Col¬ 
umbus  and  the  great  familiarity  which  he  dis¬ 
played  with  the  Bible  tend  to  confirm  the  theory  of 
his  Jewish  origin. 

But  whatever  the  origin  of  Columbus  his  first 
two  voyages  would  probably  have  been  impossible 
without  Jewish  aid.  Not  only  did  they  make 
arrangements  to  secure  the  financial  prerequisites, 
but  the  scientific  data  necessary  came  from  Jewish 
sources.  The  Almanach  Perpetuus  originally 
written  in  Hebrew  by  the  Jewish  scholar,  Abra¬ 
ham  Zacuto,  was  of  great  help  to  the  discoverer 
who  refers  to  it  in  his  reminiscences.  As  Joseph 
Jacobs  writes  in  his  “Jewish  Contributions  to 
Civilization,”  “practically  all  the  astronomical 
tables  which  were  used  by  astronomers,  astrolo¬ 
gers,  map-makers  and  mariners  (including  Col¬ 
umbus  in  the  last  named)  were  made  by  Jews,  who 
also  contributed  some  of  the  more  important 
Portulani  by  which  the  seamen  steered.  So,  too, 
the  chief  instruments  for  taking  observations  on 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  43 

board,  the  Jacob’s  Staff  and  the  new  quadrant, 
were  due  to  Levi  ben  Gerson  and  Jacob  ben 
Makir.”  Columbus’  copy  of  Zacuto’s  table,  with 
glosses  and  notes,  still  exists  in  Spain,  and  the  copy 
of  this  work,  it  may  be  added,  was  given  to  him 
by  Joseph  Vizino,  another  Jew  and  a  pupil  of 
Zacuto  himself. 

The  complete  list  of  men  who  accompanied  Col¬ 
umbus  on  his  epoch  making  voyage  has  fortu¬ 
nately  been  preserved.  Several  distinctly  Jewish 
names  appear  but  it  is  doubtful  as  to  whether 
these  constituted  the  entire  number  of  Jews  on  the 
three  ships.  It  was  very  difficult  to  find  sailors 
to  man  the  vessels.  What  was  to  prevent  numbers 
of  these  Jews,  despairing  and  despondent,  from 
seizing  this  opportunity  to  find  a  possible  home? 
They  had  nothing  to  lose,  for  they  had  nowhere 
to  go.  There  has  come  down  to  us  the  name  of 
Luis  de  Torres,  a  Jew  who  had  occupied  a  posi¬ 
tion  under  the  Governor  of  Murcia.  Torres  was 
employed  as  the  interpreter  of  the  ship,  for  he 
understood  Arabic,  Hebrew  and  Chaldee.  Another 
Jew  was  Alonzo  de  Calle.  His  name  was  derived 
from  the  “Jews’  lane.”  A  secret  Jew,  Roderigo 
Sanchez,  a  relative  to  Gabriel  Sanchez,  the 
treasurer,  took  part  in  the  expedition  at  the  ex¬ 
press  request  of  Queen  Isabella.  The  physician, 


44  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Maestro  Bernal,  was  a  Jew,  as  was  Marco,  the 
surgeon  on  board  ship. 

Columbus  took  possession  of  the  land  for  the 
rulers  of  Spain.  In  an  endeavor  to  elicit  some  in¬ 
formation  from  the  natives  he  sent  Luis  de 
Torres,  the  Jew,  and  another  sailor  to  make  the 
first  exploration  of  the  vicinity.  Torres  returned 
after  four  days,  and  in  his  report  to  Columbus, 
among  other  things  said  he  found  men  and  women 
with  fire  in  their  hands,  with  which  they  lit  one  end 
of  a  small  roll  held  in  the  mouth.  It  resembled 
dry  leaves  and  was  called  tobacco.  They  inhaled 
the  other  end  of  the  little  roll,  and  blew  forth 
great  clouds  of  smoke  through  the  mouth  and 
nose.  Torres,  who  was  the  first  European  to  dis¬ 
cover  the  use  of  the  weed,  was  also  the  first 
person  to  settle  in  Haiti. 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  identify  the  natives 
with  the  lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel.  A  Spanish 
clerygman,  Poldan,  was  the  first  to  propound  the 
theory  in  the  sixteenth  century.  In  1650  an  Eng¬ 
lishman,  Thorowgood,  wrote  on  behalf  of  the 
same  theory,  which  was  held  independently  by 
Manasseh  ben  Israel,  a  renowned  rabbi  of  Amster¬ 
dam.  Others  have  also  written  in  the  same  strain. 
Similarities  in  names,  customs,  and  habits  have 
been  noted.  Even  in  recent  times,  the  English¬ 
man,  Lord  Kingborough,  devoted  his  time,  a  large 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  45 

amount  of  money  and  his  scholarship  to  the  publi¬ 
cation  of  a  collection  of  American  documents  in 
order  to  prove  the  Jewish  origin  of  the  natives  of 
the  New  World. 

The  exponents  of  this  theory  have  pointed  out 
an  alleged  similarity  between  Hebrew  and  some  of 
the  Indian  dialects.  Iowa,  for  example,  is  be¬ 
lieved  to  be  but  another  rendition  of  Yehovah. 
Moreover,  such  customs  as  circumcision,  absten¬ 
tion  from  touching  the  dead  and  from  the  tasting 
of  blood,  the  keeping  of  definite  fast  days,  sacri¬ 
fice  of  first  fruits  on  high  mountains,  the  carrying 
of  a  holy  ark  in  time  of  war,  are  known  to  have 
existed  among  the  Indians.  Again  the  existence 
of  Jewish  facial  types  is  occasionally  to  be  found 
among  the  American  aborigines.  Nevertheless, 
ethnology  has  rendered  no  definite  verdict  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  people  whom  de  Torres  first 
saw  on  the  land  which  was  destined  to  become 
America. 


CHAPTER  II 


THE  JEW  AND  AMERICAN  IDEALS 

It  was  the  enterprise  of  Jews  that  aided  in  the 
consummation  of  Columbus’  epoch  making  voy¬ 
age  of  discovery,  and  it  was  in  a  large  measure 
Jewish  ideals  and  Biblical  influences  which  played 
a  prominent  part  in  its  foundation.  “Hebraic 
mortar,”  wrote  Lecky,  “cemented  the  foundations 
of  American  democray.”  The  direct  influence  of 
Jewish  personalities  was  only  partially  apparent, 
but  on  the  other  hand  there  was  present  the  pow¬ 
erful  leaven  of  that  Jewish  book  which  for  the 
founders  of  America  contained  all  the  earthly 
wisdom. 

If,  as  Heine  declared,  “Protestantism  is  simply 
a  Judaism  that  allows  you  to  eat  pork,”  then 
Puritanism  is  the  most  Jewish  of  all  Protestant 
sects.  The  Pilgrims  were  the  Separatist  group 
among  the  Puritans.  Raised  and  nourished  on  the 
Bible,  they  suffered  all  the  agonies  of  a  spiritual 
bondage  both  in  England  and  in  Holland.  Like 
Israel  they  thought  themselves  the  saved  remnant 
of  an  irredeemable  mankind;  like  Israel  they 

46 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  47 

•  found  themselves  rejected  of  a  majority  and  the 
object  of  their  hatred.  These  dissenters  called 
themselves  “Christian  Israel.”  England  was  “the 
land  of  bondage,”  James  I  was  “Pharoah,”  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  was  the  “Red  Sea,”  and  America 
was  the  “New  Canaan.” 

The  thing  to  be  done  by  these  Pilgrim  fathers 
seemed  foreordained  in  their  sacred  Bible.  The 
course  of  action  was  already  outlined,  and  its  path 
was  to  be  the  path  of  ancient  Israel.  The  exodus 
from  Egypt  was  their  inspiration,  so  “Christian 
Israel”  duplicated  and  followed  the  pathway  of 
the  Jewish  Israel.  “To  America  whither  the 
Shekinah  had  guided  them  through  the  sea,”  even 
as,  when  Jehovah  had  guided  his  chosen  people 
over  the  Red  Sea,  Israel  had  gone  forth  and 
created  a  theocracy  in  Canaan,  so  they,  too,  would 
go  forth  and  create  another  theocracy  in  the 
New  Canaan. 

A  generation  of  Christians  raised  leisurely  in 
the  Sunday  Schools  and  having  but  a  superficial 
acquaintance  with  the  Bible  can  little  realize  the 
intense  and  far  reaching  role  of  that  book  in  the 
lives  of  their  forefathers.  They  were  nearer  to 
the  Old  Testament  than  to  the  New.  They  bor¬ 
rowed  their  nomenclature  from  that  book.  Even 
in  their  invective  they  used  Jewish  terms.  “Anna 
Hutchinson  was  a  wretched  Jezebel.”  Every 


48  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

happening,  every  personality  was  seen  through 
Hebraic  spectacles.  Governor  Bradford,  in  his 
“History  of  the  Plymouth  Plantation,”  describes 
the  removal  from  Leyden  and  the  joy  of  their 
enemies  who  had  slandered  them  “as  if  that  state 
had  been  wearie  of  them,  and  had  rather  driven 
them  out  (as  the  heathen  historians  did  faine  of 
Moyses  and  the  Israelites  when  they  went  out  of 
Egipte).” 

Their  career  was  to  a  certain  extent  parallel  to 
the  career  of  the  ancient  Jewish  people.  In  the 
new  land  they  sought  to  find  a  haven  of  refuge 
and  to  worship  God  according  to  their  own  tradi¬ 
tions.  The  problem  of  subduing  the  surrounding 
tribes  faced  the  Puritans  and  they  proceeded  to  act 
in  the  fashion  of  the  ancient  Jews.  Their  career 
was  to  be  a  duplication  of  the  career  of  the  People 
of  the  Book.  “It  appears,”  writes  one  of  the 
early  colonists,  “that  God  calls  the  colonies  to 
warr.  The  Narrohgansetts  and  confederates  rest 
on  their  numbers,  weapons  and  opportunities  to  do 
mischeefe  as  probably  of  ould,  Ashur,  Amalek, 
and  the  Philistines  with  others  did  confederate 
against  Israeli.”  Their  eventual  triumph  must 
have  seemed  to  them  foreordained  just  as  the 
triumph  of  their  Jewish  spiritual  fathers  was  fore¬ 
ordained  over  the  Amalekites  and  the  Philistines. 

The  leaders  of  the  colony  were  in  their  spiritual 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  49 

makeup  simply  a  far  flung  branch  of  the  House  of 
Israel.  Culturally  they  were  Jews  as  much  as  non- 
Jews  possibly  can  be.  They  absorbed  in  the  fullest 
manner  the  spirit  of  the  Jew  as  manifested  in 
Biblical  literature.  Nor  did  they  stop  at  the  Eng¬ 
lish  rendition  of  the  Bible.  What  they  sought, 
was  to  decipher  the  original  Hebrew  so  that  they 
might  still  further  master  every  available  bit  of 
Jewish  learning.  Francis  Baylies  in  his  “Historical 
Memoir  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth”  makes 
the  assertion  that  all  the  clergy  among  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  were  skilled  critics  in  Hebrew.  This  per¬ 
haps  might  be  overstating  the  point;  but  when  one 
reads  Bradford’s  pathetic  delineation  of  his 
attempts  to  master  Hebrew  so  that  he  might 
“learn  in  their  own  tongue  how  the  patriarchs 
communed  with  God,”  we  get  a  glimpse  of  this 
Hebraized  Puritan  mentality.  Holland,  the  place 
of  their  temporary  sojourn,  contained  large  num¬ 
bers  of  Jews  who  had  come  from  Spain,  and  these 
Jews  furnished  the  Pilgrim  clerics  with  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  original  Biblical  tongue. 

“Christ  did,  indeed  occupy  a  place  in  their 
theology,  but  in  spirit  they  may  be  considered  as 
Jews  and  not  Christians.  Their  God  was  the  God 
of  the  Old  Testament,  their  laws  were  the  laws 
of  the  Old  Testament,  their  guides  to  conduct 
were  the  characters  of  the  Old  Testament.”  Thus 


50  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

writes  James  Truslow  Adams  in  his  brilliant  work 
on  “The  Founding  of  New  England.” 

It  was  the  profoundest  of  contemporary  He¬ 
brew  philosophers,  Achad  Haam, .who  remarked 
that  not  only  did  the  Jewish  people  create  the 
Bible  but  that  the  Bible  created  the  Jewish  people. 
What  was  true  of  Israel  was  true  of  the  New 
England  Fathers.  The  persistence  of  Israel  in  a 
hostile  environment  can  be  attributed  to  its  faith 
that  it  is  a  separate  minority,  to  the  faith  that 
Jehovah  is  with  it  and  that  it  will  inevitably  be 
redeemed,  to  its  self-discipline  and  austerity,  to 
its  strength  of  will,  all  characteristics  which  flow 
from  its  Biblical  tradition.  In  the  case  of 
America,  less  stubborn  breeds  came,  saw  and  were 
conquered  by  the  inhospitable  environment; 
among  those  that  persisted  the  Puritans  stood 
foremost.  And  they  persisted  precisely  because  of 
those  characteristics  engendered  by  their  Biblical 
theology.  Their  disciplined  minds,  their  obstinacy 
and  strength  of  will,  their  sublime  faith  that  Je¬ 
hovah  was  with  them,  all  these  factors  which  were 
the  fruits  of  their  Hebraic  culture  made  possible 
their  ultimate  triumph  and  insured  the  continuity 
of  their  settlements.  Thanks  to  their  Hebraic 
tenacity  the  foundations  of  New  England  were 
laid. 

Their  laws  they  copied  from  the  Hebraic 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  51 

model.  In  this  commonwealth  there  was,  as 
Fiske  writes,  “the  same  ethical  impulse  which  ani¬ 
mates  the  glowing  pages  of  Hebrew  poets  and 
prophets,  and  which  has  given  to  the  history  and 
literature  of  Israel  their  commanding  influence  in 
the  world.”  The  foreword  of  the  1658  revision 
of  the  Pilgrim  Code  reads  that  “it  was  the  great 
priviledge  of  Israeli  of  old,  and  soe  was  acknowl¬ 
edged  by  them,  Nehemiah  the  9th  and  13.  That 
God  gave  them  right  judgements  and  true  Lawes, 
.  .  .  and  accordingly  wee  .  .  .  can  safely  say 
.  .  .  that  wee  have  had  an  eye  primarily  and 
principally  unto  the  aforsaid  Platforme.” 

In  the  historic  correspondence  in  1642  between 
Bradford,  Partridge,  Reyner  and  Chauncey  of 
Plymouth  with  Governor  Bellingham  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  there  is  established  for  the  guidance  of 
the  colony  the  principle  that  “ye  judicials  of 
Moyses  are  immutable  and  perpetual.”  In  fram¬ 
ing  the  capital  laws  of  the  colony,  legislators 
sought  to  harmonize  their  ideas  with  Biblical 
ideas  by  appending  Mosaic  quotations.  This 
Biblical  influence  was  paramount  in  all  the  New 
England  colonies.  In  the  Connecticut  code  of 
1650,  the  Mosaic  model  is  adopted.  Magistrates 
are  empowered  to  administer  justice  “according  to 
the  laws  here  established  and  for  want  of  them 
according  to  the  word  of  God.”  In  New  Haven 


52  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

also  the  extension  of  Jewish  influence  was  visible. 
The  founders  of  the  colony,  John  Davenport  and 
Theophilus  Eaton,  were  expert  Hebrew  scholars. 
Davenport  introduced  the  study  of  Hebrew  in  the 
first  public  school  in  New  Haven. 

In  New  Haven’s  declaration  of  legislative  prin¬ 
ciples,  there  is  found  the  doctrine  that  “the  judi¬ 
cial  laws  of  God  as  they  were  delivered  by  Moses, 
and  as  they  are  a  fence  to  the  moral  law,  being 
neither  typical  or  ceremonial,  nor  had  any  refer¬ 
ence  to  Canaan,  shall  be  accounted  of  moral  equity, 
and  generally  bind  all  offenders,  and  be  a  rule  to 
all  the  courts  in  this  jurisdiction  in  their  proceeding 
against  offenders,  till  they  be  branched  out  into 
particulars  hereafter.” 

In  the  code  of  1655  for  the  same  colony  there 
were  79  topical  statues  for  its  government.  Of 
these  79,  50  percent  contained  references  solely  to 
the  Old  Testament,  9  per  cent  from  the  Old  and 
the  New  and  only  three  percent  from  the  Christian 
gospels,  demonstrating  how  completely  Hebraized 
the  Puritan  mentality  was. 

The  powerful  influences  emanating  from  the 
tradition  of  the  Jew  did  not  cease  with  the  success¬ 
ful  conclusion  of  the  period  of  early  pioneering. 
At  every  critical  hour  the  authority  of  his  words 
and  deeds  was  invoked;  physically  he  may  have 
been  absent,  spiritually,  however,  he  played  an 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  53 

important  role  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
rendered  the  ultimate  verdict. 

In  early  America,  we  must  remember,  news¬ 
papers  were  few  and  far  between,  the  communica¬ 
tion  of  news  was  slow,  higher  educational  institu¬ 
tions  were  for  the  select  few.  The  moulding  of 
character  and  ideals  came  largely  as  a  result  of 
Biblical  influences.  The  pulpit  was  practically  the 
sole  source  of  information  about  those  things  out¬ 
side  routine  life  and  the  Bible  was  the  very  basis 
of  the  early  Americans’  existence.  Joshua,  Samuel, 
Moses,  David,  Gideon, — these  figures  were  more 
familiar  to  the  American  than  the  history  of  his 
own  forebears  or  the  mother  country.  It  is  not 
surprising  therefore  that  in  time  there  developed 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  the  same  mentality 
which  characterized  the  other  race  nourished  on 
the  Bible,  extreme  individualism,  distrust  for  mun¬ 
dane  authority,  impatience  with  dynastic  tyranny. 

It  is  only  of  late  that  historians  have  begun  to 
recognize  the  source  of  that  republican  feeling 
that  ended  in  the  separation  from  the  mother 
country.  While,  in  the  case  of  the  few,  the  Eng¬ 
lishman,  Locke,  and  perhaps  some  of  the  French 
Encyclopedists  exercised  a  decided  influence,  in 
the  case  of  the  many  brought  up  on  their  Bible, 
revolutionary  occurrences  in  ancient  Israel  played 
a  paramount  role.  The  divine  right  of  Kings  once 


54  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

held  omnipotent  sway  over  Europe  and  hardy 
indeed  were  those  who  flung  the  first  challenge 
at  it.  There  would  have  been  no  response  on  the 
part  of  the  masses  until  there  had  seeped  into  their 
mentality  doubt  as  to  its  Biblical  sanction. 

In  colonial  times  it  was  customary  before  each 
election  to  preach  in  the  church  a  sermon  con¬ 
cerning  the  current  political  issues.  This  was 
called  the  election  sermon.  It  was  often  printed 
and  then  sent  broadcast.  This  form  of  propa¬ 
ganda  exercised  a  powerful  influence  on  the  ulti¬ 
mate  outcome  of  the  conflict.  It  was  regarded  as 
the  political  pamphlet  of  the  day;  in  the  practi¬ 
cal  absence  of  all  other  reading  matter  besides  the 
Bible  it  served  as  a  great  instrument  of  political 
and  intellectual  education. 

Lecky,  in  his  “Rationalism  in  Europe”  (vol. 
II,  page  1 68),  commenting  on  English  revolu¬ 
tionary  methods,  which  were  paralleled  also  in 
America,  writes  “It  is  at  least  an  historical  fact 
that  in  the  great  majority  of  instances  the  early 
Protestant  defenders  of  civil  liberty  derived  their 
political  principles  chiefly  from  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  defenders  of  despotism  from  the  New. 
The  rebellions  that  were  so  frequent  in  Jewish 
history  formed  the  favorite  topic  of  the  one — the 
unreserved  submission  inculcated  by  St.  Paul,  of 
the  other.” 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  55 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Langdon  in  his  sermon 
before  the  Honorable  Congress  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  May  31,  1775,  preached  on  the  text  “I  will 
restore  thy  judges  as  at  the  first.”  Among  other 
things  he  asserted,  “Let  them  who  cry  up  for  the 
divine  right  of  kings  consider  that  the  only  form 
of  government  which  had  a  proper  claim  to  a 
divine  establishment  was  so  far  from  including 
the  idea  of  a  king,  that  it  was  a  high  crime  for 
Israel  to  ask  to  be  in  this  respect  like  other  na¬ 
tions;  and  when  they  were  gratified,  it  was  rather 
as  a  just  punishment  of  their  folly.”  By  a  special 
vote  Dr.  Langdon’s  sermon  was  ordered  to  be 
printed  and  sent  to  each  minister  in  the  colony  and 
to  each  member  of  the  Congress. 

It  was  from  the  Biblical  arsenals  that  many  of 
these  revolutionists  gathered  the  weapons  which 
destroyed  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain.  The 
leaders  and  preachers,  particularly  in  New  Eng¬ 
land,  knew  precisely  the  things  that  counted  most 
with  their  hearers,  and  in  arousing  them  to  a  sense 
of  duty  expressly  pointed  out  the  religious  sanction 
for  rebellion.  Truly  if  God  was  King,  what  neces¬ 
sity  was  there  for  other  substitute  Kings;  if  the 
Ruler  was  in  Heaven,  why  tolerate  these  earthly 
rulers?  If  all  men  were  equal  children  of  Yah- 
weh,  and  Yahweh’s  power  was  absolute,  it  natur¬ 
ally  followed  that  no  man  could  usurp  his  function. 


56  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Lazare,  the  brilliant  student  of  Jewish  psy¬ 
chology,  analyzing  the  restlessness  of  the  Jew  and 
his  critical  attitude  towards  established  authority, 
wrote  in  his  work  “Anti-Semitism”:  “Holding 
Yahweh  alone  as  their  Lord,  poor  men  were  ever 
driven  to  revolt  against  human  magistracy;  they 
could  not  accept  it,  and  during  the  periods  of  up¬ 
rising  Zadok  and  Judah  the  Galilean  were  seen  car¬ 
rying  with  them  the  zealots  by  their  cry  ‘Call  none 
you  master’.”  When  eighteen  centuries  after  these 
there  is  inscribed  in  the  first  seal  of  the  United 
States  the  words  “Rebellion  to  tyrants  is  obedience 
to  God,”  we  see  two  different  races  in  two  different 
epochs  of  history  arrive  at  an  identical  idea  by  a 
logical  process  from  the  same  original  premise. 

These  preachers  absorbed  the  Biblical  knowl¬ 
edge  and  nourished  their  rebellious  spirit  on 
Israel’s  doctrines  and  history.  The  election  ser¬ 
mon  of  Rev.  Simeon  Howard  before  the  Council 
and  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts 
in  1780  was  typical  of  the  time.  In  this  audience 
were  Robert  Treat  Paine  and  Samuel  Adams. 
Preaching  in  favor  of  electing  rulers  he  asserts: 
“This  is  asserted  by  Josephus,  and  plainly  in¬ 
timated  by  Moses  in  his  recapitulatory  discourse, 

.  .  .  and,  indeed,  the  Jews  always  exercised  this 
right  of  choosing  their  own  rulers ;  even  Saul  and 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  57 

David,  and  all  their  successors  in  the  throne,  were 
made  kings  by  the  voice  of  the  people.” 

The  Biblical  argument  was  most  clearly  and 
lucidly  stated  by  Thomas  Paine  in  his  “Common 
Sense.”  Of  this  volume  Dr.  Rush  says,  “It  burst 
forth  from  the  press  with  an  effect  that  has  rarely 
been  produced  by  type  and  paper  in  any  age  or 
country.”  “Common  sense”  devotes  its  foremost 
part  to  the  subject  of  Monarchy  and  Hereditary 
Succession,  and  is  drawn  entirely  from  Jewish  his¬ 
tory.  Monarchy  is  ranked  in  the  Scriptures  as  one 
of  the  sins  of  the  Jews  for  which  a  curse  in  reserve 
is  pronounced  against  them.  Paine  marshalls 
all  the  anti-monarchical  incidents  for  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  and  exclaims  “Where  ...  is  the  King  of 
America?  I’ll  tell  you,  friend,  he  reigns  above.” 
Continuing  the  narrative  he  concludes  with  Sam¬ 
uel’s  warning  concerning  monarchy:  “These  por¬ 
tions  of  scripture  are  direct  and  positive.  They 
admit  of  no  equivocal  construction.  That  the 
Almighty  hath  here  entered  his  protest  against 
monarchical  government  is  true,  or  the  scripture 
is  false.” 

What  would  be  an  appropriate  symbol  for  these 
revolutionists  who  had  absorbed  the  history  of 
Israel  and  looked  to  the  lessons  of  Jewish  experi¬ 
ence  as  to  the  wisdom  to  be  cherished?  What  could 
have  a  profounder  effect  on  the  people  than  a 


58  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Jewish  seal?  On  the  same  day  that  the  Declara¬ 
tion  of  Independence  was  adopted,  a  Committee 
consisting  of  Dr.  Franklin,  Mr.  Adams  and  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  appointed  to  devise  a  seal  for  the 
new  country.  They  proposed  to  depict  for  one  side 
Pharoah  sitting  in  an  open  chariot,  a  crown  on 
his  head  and  a  sword  in  his  hand  passing  through 
the  dividing  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  in  pursuit  of 
the  Jews.  Rays  from  a  pillar  of  fire  beam  on 
Moses,  who  is  represented  as  standing  on  a  shore 
extending  his  hand  over  the  sea  causing  it  to 
overwhelm  Pharoah.  Beneath  was  the  motto, 
“Rebellion  to  tyrants  is  obedience  to  God.” 

The  revolutionary  historians  themselves  make 
clear  the  profound  influence  exercised  by  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  Jewish  people  upon  the  American 
mind  in  the  making.  Dr.  David  Tappan  who  was 
professor  of  divinity  at  Harvard  University  im¬ 
mediately  after  the  Revolutionary  War  and  who 
had  excellent  opportunities  to  observe  the  impell¬ 
ing  motives  to  Revolution,  speaking  about  Sam¬ 
uel’s  admonition  against  monarchy,  added  that 
“from  this  source  some  writers  have  deduced  that 
monarchy  is  in  its  very  nature  criminal,  it  invades 
the  prerogative  of  the  Supreme  Ruler  as  well  as 
the  equal  rights  of  man.  This  inference  was 
plausibly  enforced  on  the  American  people  .  .  . 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  59 

and  this  sentiment,  with  others  equally  well  timed, 
operated  with  the  swiftness  and  force  of  an  elec¬ 
tric  fluid  in  preparing  the  country  for  a  formal 
separation  from  the  British  monarch.” 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  JEWS  AND  THE  ECONOMIC  FOUN¬ 
DATIONS  OF  AMERICA 

The  first  direct  influence  of  Jewish  men  and 
money  in  the  colonization  of  our  country  was 
made  through  the  Dutch  West  India  Company. 
Numbers  of  the  refugees  from  Spain  fled  to 
Holland,  which  was  the  first  European  country 
to  raise  the  standard  of  religious  tolerance,  and 
a  large  amount  of  wealth  was  by  virtue  of  the 
migration  diverted  to  the  new  haven  of  refuge. 
Sombart,  in  his  “Jews  and  Modern  Capitalism,” 
explains  the  sudden,  unparalleled  rise  of  Holland 
as  a  trading  center  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven¬ 
teenth  centuries  as  being  due  to  the  Spanish  Jewish 
influx,  and  whatever  be  the  pros  and  cons  of  this 
particular  question  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
commercial  and  colonial  importance  of  Holland 
rose  with  the  assistance  of  Jews. 

The  Company  itself  had  no  hesitation  in  assert¬ 
ing  the  importance  of  the  Jewish  shareholders  in 
its  activity.  When  the  first  shipload  of  Jews  ar¬ 
rived  in  New  York  from  Brazil,  Peter  Stuyvesant 

60 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  6i 

displayed  a  keen  animosity  toward  them.  He  wrote 
to  the  Directors  in  Amsterdam  requesting  that 
“none  of  the  Jewish  nation  be  permitted  to  infest 
New  Netherlands  The  directors  replied  that 
they  “would  have  liked  to  agree  to  your  wishes 
and  request,  .  .  .  but  ...  we  observe,  that  it 
would  be  unreasonable  and  unfair,  especially  be¬ 
cause  of  the  considerable  loss  sustained  by  the 
Jews  in  the  taking  of  Brasil  and  also  because  of 
the  large  amount  of  capital,  which  they  have  in¬ 
vested  in  shares  of  this  Company.” 

Confirmatory  evidence  of  the  targe  participa¬ 
tion  of  the  Jews  in  the  Dutch  West  India  Com¬ 
pany  is  also  found  in  another  source.  Menasseh 
ben  Israel  in  his  “Humble  Address  to  Cromwell” 
states  “that  the  Jews  were  enjoying  a  good  part 
of  the  (Dutch)  East  and  West  India  Company.” 
In  the  Board  of  Directors,  asserts  one  of  the  first 
writers  on  the  early  settlements  of  the  Jews  in 
America,  Charles  Patrick  Daly,  there  were  a  num¬ 
ber  of  these  Spanish  Jews. 

It  was  in  1654  that  the  Jews  first  came  to  New 
York.  These  Jews,  twenty-three  men,  women  and 
children,  were  refugees  from  Pernambuco,  Brazil, 
which  had  just  been  captured  by  the  Portuguese. 
They  must  have  fled  hurriedly,  for  they  had  no 
passage  money,  and  upon  their  arrival  here,  the 
master  of  the  boat  sold  all  their  available  posses- 


62  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

sions.  The  sale,  however,  did  not  realize  the  full 
amount,  and  two  Jews,  David  Israel  and  Moses 
Ambrosoes  were  held  as  security  until  the  matter 
was  straightened  out. 

Stuyvesant’s  hostility  to  the  new  arrivals 
aroused  the  Jewish  members  of  the  Directorate 
of  the  Company,  and  on  the  15th  of  July,  165 5,  a 
special  resolution  was  passed  in  which  specific 
rights  were  granted  to  the  Jews,  giving  them  full 
economic  liberty  on  the  condition  that  they  take 
care  of  their  poor.  The  Governor,  nevertheless, 
strove  to  hinder  them  by  petty  means  and  only 
later,  when  the  Board  of  Directors  categorically 
announced  that  the  Jews  of  New  Amsterdam  were 
to  enjoy  the  same  liberties  as  the  Jews  of  Holland, 
did  this  antagonism  begin  to  weaken. 

The  capture  of  the  City  by  the  British  did  not 
alter  in  any  degree  the  status  of  the  Jews.  The 
erection  of  a  synagogue  was  prohibited  for  some 
time.  In  1691  we  see  them,  in  a  directory  of  that 
year,  enumerated  as  one  of  the  sects  of  the  city 
which  possessed  its  own  hall  of  worship.  With 
characteristic  industry  and  intelligence  they  be¬ 
gan  to  rise  in  the  economic  scale  and  as  early  as 
1700  they  exercised  considerable  enlightening  in¬ 
fluence  on  the  political  life  of  the  colony.  The 
liberal  Lord  Bellomont,  who  was  Governor  in 
1698,  had  arrayed  against  him  the  leading  mer- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  63 

chants,  in  consequence  of  his  efforts  to  put  down 
the  piracy  by  which  they  profited.  He  was  also 
opposed  by  the  aristocratic  party  because  he  had 
disapproved  of  their  course  in  the  trial  and  ex¬ 
ecution  of  the  rebellious  Leisler.  The  aristocratic 
and  mercantile  class  deprived  Bellomont  of  the 
money  to  carry  on  his  government,  and  so  extern 
sive  and  powerful  was  this  combination  that  he 
writes  in  1700  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  “Were  it 
not  for  one  Dutch  Merchant  and  two  or  three 
Jews  that  have  let  me  have  the  money,  I  should 
have  been  undone.” 

The  Jewish  Colony  had  in  the  meantime  been 
reinforced  by  a  slow  and  steady  influx  of  immi¬ 
grants  from  the  countries  of  Europe.  The  Rev. 
John  Sharpe  wrote  in  1712,  “It  is  possible  to 
learn  Hebrew  here  as  well  as  in  Europe,  there 
being  a  Synagogue  of  Jews,  and  many  ingenious 
men  of  that  nation  from  Poland,  Hungary,  Ger¬ 
many,  etc.”  These  “many  ingenious  men”  ex¬ 
tended  the  commerce  of  the  city  and  vitalized 
its  economic  life.  They  were  among  the  leading 
merchants  of  the  city  and  by  their  international 
connections  assisted  in  making  the  city  a  center 
of  international  trade. 

A  certain  number  of  Jews  departed  from 
New  York  and  proceeded  eastward  to  Rhode 
Island.  As  early  as  1657  Jews  began  their  pen- 


64  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

etration  into  that  province,  attracted  by  the  free¬ 
dom  of  conscience  guaranteed  by  its  founder, 
Roger  Williams.  In  Newport  there  soon  rose 
a  considerable  community  of  Jews  headed  by 
Aaron  Lopez  who  raised  the  status  of  the  city 
to  one  of  supreme  importance.  It  was  the  one 
of  three  most  significant  commercial  centres  of 
the  colonies,  ranking  with  Boston  and  Philadel¬ 
phia.  Lopez,  who  came  about  1755,  induced 
forty  Jewish  families  to  settle  there  and  soon 
Newport  began  to  grow  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
In  fourteen  years  after  he  settled,  Newport  had 
150  vessels  engaged  in  trade  with  the  West 
Indies  in  addition  to  carrying  on  a  whaling  busi¬ 
ness.  Lopez  alone  was  the  owner  of  thirty 
vessels  engaged  in  European  and  West  Indian 
trade  and  in  the  whale  fisheries.  He  was  looked 
upon  as  one  of  the  most  eminent  and  successful 
merchants  in  New  England.  His  father-in-law, 
Jacob  Rodriguez-Rivera,  came  to  Newport  in 
1745  and  by  introducing  the  manufacture  of  sper¬ 
maceti  there,  added  to  the  prosperity  of  the  town. 
So  successful  was  their  activity  that  at  one  time 
Newport  possessed  seventeen  factories  of  candles 
and  oil  products  and  a  probable  monopoly  of  this 
industry  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution. 

Immediately  after  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century  Jews  began  to  make  their  appearance  in 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  65 

Philadelphia.  Jonas  Aaron  was  the  first  settler. 
He  established  himself  in  1703  and  in  time  a  com¬ 
paratively  prosperous  community  grew  up  about 
him.  In  1740  a  cemetery  known  as  the  “Jews 
burying-ground”  was  secured.  A  congregation 
known  as  “Mikveh  Israel”  was  established  in 
1745.  Of  the  eleven  original  founders  of  the  city 
of  Easton,  Pa.,  three  were  Jews:  Myer  Hart,  his 
wife  Rachel  and  his  son,  Michael.  He  is  at  the 
head  of  the  list  of  those  furnishing  materials  for 
the  erection  of  Easton  schoolhouse,  and  an  idea 
of  his  industry  may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that 
he  and  his  son  were  the  two  heaviest  taxed  in¬ 
dividuals  in  the  county. 

Georgia,  the  breeding  nest  of  the  Ku-Klux- 
Klan,  was,  ironically  enough,  placed  on  a  per¬ 
manent  basis  by  a  number  of  Jews,  together  with 
a  congregation  of  Moravians  and  a  small  body 
of  Highlanders  from  Scotland.  General  Ogle¬ 
thorpe,  a  high  minded  man,  distressed  by  the  con¬ 
dition  of  individuals  imprisoned  for  debt,  decided 
to  found  the  colony  between  the  Altamaha  and  the 
Savannah  river.  He  organized  a  company  to  sell 
stocks  and  began  the  colony  with  1 1 5  people  who 
had  been  released  from  jail.  He  distributed  a 
tract  of  land  for  each  one  of  them  for  a  period  of 
ten  years.  On  the  7th  of  July,  the  day  on  which 
Oglethorpe  had  assembled  the  colonists  for  the 


66  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

purpose  of  allotting  the  land,  a  ship  came  up  the 
Savannah  river  with  forty  Jewish  immigrants. 
The  Company  officials  in  London,  informed  of 
the  appearance  of  the  Jews,  came  to  the  conclu¬ 
sion,  3,000  miles  away  from  the  scene,  that  the 
new  immigrants  would  interfere  with  the  sale  of 
shares.  They  hoped  that  the  public  mind  might 
be  disabused  of  any  intention  to  “make  a  Jews’ 
colony  of  Georgia.” 

Oglethorpe  knew  the  situation  much  better,  and 
encouraged  the  Jewish  settlement.  He  realized 
the  value  of  these  new  immigrants  wrho  stood  out 
in  marked  contrast  to  the  idle,  shiftless  and  useless 
graduates  of  the  English  prisons.  One  of  the 
Jewish  group  was  Dr.  Nunez,  whom  Oglethorpe 
specially  commended  for  his  humane  efforts  to 
alleviate  suffering  among  the  colonists.  Another 
was  Abraham  De  Lyon,  an  agriculturist  who  suc¬ 
cessfully  introduced  useful  foreign  plants  and  by 
the  cultivation  of  the  vine  labored  to  make 
Georgia  a  grape  growing  country.  The  principal 
merchant  of  the  colony  also  was  a  Jew.  Later  the 
Moravians  and  the  doughty  Scotch  Highlanders 
arrived  and  Georgia  began  to  make  progress. 
The  first  white  male  child  born  in  the  colony  was 
a  Jew,  Isaac  Minis.  The  Jews  constituted  about 
one-third  of  the  whole  colony  in  its  beginning. 
After  the  departure  of  Oglethorpe,  the  more  big- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  67 

oted  of  the  colonists  exerted  their  influence  and  a 
number  of  Jews  began  to  leave.  They  established 
themselves  in  the  neighboring  city  of  Charleston. 

Here  they  formed  themselves  into  a  Congrega¬ 
tion  in  the  year  1750.  But  the  growth  of  the 
population  made  necessary  a  larger  place  of  wor¬ 
ship,  and  in  1781  they  bought  a  commodious  brick 
structure,  which  was  altered  into  a  permanent 
synagogue.  In  1791  their  official  incorporation 
as  a  religious  society  took  place.  The  number  of 
members  was  about  400.  The  Hebrew  Benevo¬ 
lent  Society,  organized  in  Charleston  in  1750,  is 
in  existence  to  this  very  day.  The  Jew,  here  as 
elsewhere,  vitalized  the  economic  life  of  the  place 
by  the  introduction  of  new  ideas.  Moses  Lindo, 
for  instance,  who  arrived  from  London  in  1756, 
became  engaged  in  indigo  manufacture  which  he 
made  one  of  the  principal  industries  of  the  colony. 

It  is  Virginia  that  has  the  earliest  record  of 
Jewish  participation  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
United  States.  “A  Muster  of  the  Inhabitants  of 
Virginia”  in  1633  contains  the  names  of  Elias 
Legardo,  Joseph  Moise,  and  Rebecca  Isaacke. 
Seignor  Moses  Nehemiah  is  mentioned  as  a  liti¬ 
gant  in  the  year  1658  in  the  legal  annals  of  the 
colony.  His  litigation  sheds  a  peculiar  light  on 
conditions  in  early  Virginia.  Tobacco,  then,  was 
a  legal  tender  and  was  preferred  to  anything  else. 


68  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

In  order  to  compel  a  creditor  to  receive  payment 
in  coin  instead  of  tobacco,  Nehemiah  had  to  have 
recourse  to  judicial  procedure. 

The  New  York  State  archives  contain  an  origi¬ 
nal  bill  of  lading  and  an  invoice  of  goods  shipped 
from  Curacao  to  New  Netherland  in  1658  di¬ 
rected  to  Joshua  Mordecai  En-Reques.  In  this 
document  there  is  enumerated  the  following  list 
of  articles  which  the  above  mentioned  Jew  was 
importing  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony: 
Venetian  pearls,  pendants,  thimbles,  scissors, 
knives  and  bells.  Four  years  after  their  admission 
to  the  colony  they  were  carrying  on  commerce 
with  Venice,  perhaps  the  chief  Mediterranean 
seaport  of  the  time.  Tobacco  was  soon  imported 
by  a  Jewish  merchant.  There  are  numberless 
references  to  the  commerce  carried  on  by  the  Jews 
of  New  York,  often  with  their  own  vessels.  These 
New  York  Jews  traded  with  Jamaica,  Barbados, 
St.  Thomas,  Canada,  Bermuda,  Lisbon,  Madeira 
and  Liverpool,  in  all  of  which  places  the  foreign 
commerce  was  in  Jewish  hands.  Trade  with  India 
was  opened  up  by  a  Jew  from  New  York  who  had 
previously  lived  in  Calcutta,  while  another  Jewish 
trader  sent  ships  to  Malabar  and  China.  The 
commerce  of  Newport  has  already  been  alluded 
to,  and  it  may  be  mentioned  in  passing  that  these 
Newport  Jews  also  had  formed  an  intercolonial 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  69 

oil  company,  antedating  the  Standard  Oil  by  about 
150  years. 

This  commercial  importance  of  the  Jew  in  the 
colonies  was  not  mere  accident.  Writing  in  1712, 
in  “The  Spectator”  the  essayist  Addison  who 
held  office  in  England  declared  that  “they  [the 
Jews]  are,  indeed,  so  disseminated  through  all  the 
trading  parts  of  the  world,  that  they  are  become 
the  instruments  by  which  the  most  distant  na¬ 
tions  converse  with  one  another,  and  by  which 
mankind  are  knit  together  in  a  general  correspon¬ 
dence;  they  are  like  the  pegs  and  nails  in  a  great 
building,  which,  though  they  are  but  little  valued 
in  themselves,  are  absolutely  necessary  to  keep  the 
whole  frame  together.” 

The  Jews  throughout  Europe  and  America  oc¬ 
cupied  then,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  still  occupy 
a  peculiar  position.  International  commerce  was 
then  in  its  infancy.  Differences  in  language  and 
customs,  national  jealousy  and  suspicious  distrust 
of  foreigners,  ignorance  of  the  technique  of  trad¬ 
ing,  conditions  of  chronic  warfare,  all  militated 
against  extensive  international  commerce.  The 
means  of  communication  were  slow  and  confidence 
in  people  thousands  of  miles  distant  was  rare.  But 
here  were  the  Jews,  united  by  language,  customs, 
and  morals,  spread  throughout  all  the  great  com¬ 
mercial  centers  and  in  addition  endowed  with  a 


70  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

great  capacity  for  trading.  The  Jew  in  New 
York  had  relatives  in  Amsterdam,  Brazil  and 
London.  The  Jew  of  Newport  was  acquainted 
with  the  Jews  of  Barbados,  Constantinople  or 
Italy.  Most  of  these  Jews  were  of  Spanish  origin 
or  descent,  and  members  of  the  same  family  found 
themselves  after  the  expulsion  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.  It  was  this  peculiar  situation  which  was 
of  great  commercial  importance  and  redounded 
ultimately  to  the  great  benefit  of  the  American 
colonies.  Because  of  this,  the  Jew  rendered  a 
unique  and  unparalleled  service  to  the  upbuilding 
of  the  colonies. 

England  forced  her  colonies  to  purchase  in  the 
mother  country  all  the  manufactured  articles 
which  they  needed.  Edward  Eggleston,  a  lead¬ 
ing  historian  of  American  colonial  commerce,  has 
well  pointed  out  that  the  balance  of  trade  with 
England  went  heavily  against  the  colonies.  Brit¬ 
ish  merchants  refused  colonial  currency  and  this 
heavy  balance  had  to  be  paid  in  coin.  This  defi¬ 
ciency  was  supplied  by  means  of  the  trade  with  the 
West  Indian  islands  and  the  African  colonies.  In 
all  these  West  Indian  trading  centers  the  Jews 
played  the  first  role.  A  stream  of  precious  metals 
came  into  the  country  offsetting  the  handicap 
under  which  the  colonies  were  laboring.  Com¬ 
munications  between  both  sections  of  the  Western 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  71 

hemisphere  had  been  initiated  by  Jews  and  they 
were  among  the  most  important  of  the  commercial 
groups,  which  were  active.  This  wealth  revitalized 
the  economic  system,  the  basis  of  the  colonies’ 
existence,  and  saved  it  from  inevitable  stagnation 
and  decay. 

The  sugar  trade  also  was  of  great  importance 
to  the  colonies.  Aside  from  precious  metals,  it 
was  the  chief  article  of  trade  between  both  por¬ 
tions  of  the  New  World.  There  is  ground  for 
believing  that  sugar  culture  was  transplanted  from 
Madeira  to  Brazil  and  the  New  World  by  a  Span¬ 
ish  Jew.  At  one  time  the  whole  sugar  industry 
in  the  West  Indies  and  Brazil  was  a  Jewish  mo¬ 
nopoly.  It  was  an  industry  of  supreme  import¬ 
ance  in  that  day,  as  Brooks  Adams  has  pointed 
out  in  his  volume  on  America’s  commercial  su¬ 
premacy.  It  brought  vast  wealth  to  England  and 
the  colonies  and  to  other  countries,  also.  The 
writer,  Nieuhoff,  who  was  in  Brazil  before  1650, 
wrote  that  “They  [the  Jews]  had  a  vast  traffic, 
beyond  all  the  rest,  they  purchased  sugar  mills, 
and  built  stately  houses  in  the  Receif.  They  were 
all  traders.”  The  Council  of  Trade  in  Paris 
(1701)  declared  “that  French  shipping  owes  its 
splendor  to  the  commerce  of  the  sugar  producing 
islands.” 

It  was  this  commercial  link  between  the  Jews 


72  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

of  the  colonies  and  the  Jews  of  the  West  Indies 
and  Brazil  that  stabilized  the  economic  order  of 
the  colonies  and  gave  it  the  basis  for  its  economic 
future.  It  compensated  for  the  burden  that  the 
mother  country  placed  upon  America  and  without 
the  beneficial  effects  flowing  from  this  Jewish 
trade  the  growth  of  the  colonies  would  have  been 
difficult  and  slow. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  JEWS  AND  THE  REVOLUTIONARY 

WAR 

When  the  conflict  between  the  colonies  and  the 
mother  country  grew  keen,  the  overwhelming 
majority  of  the  Jews  were  arrayed  on  the  patriot 
side.  From  the  very  inception  of  the  protest 
against  the  meddlesome  habits  of  Parliament  they 
stood  solidly  behind  the  revolutionaries.  On  the 
Non-Importation  Resolutions  of  1765  we  find  the 
names  of  leading  Jewish  merchants,  Benjamin 
Levy,  Sampson  Levy,  Joseph  Jacobs,  Hayman 
Levy,  Jr.,  David  Franks,  Matthias  Bush,  Michael 
Gratz,  Bernard  Gratz  and  Moses  Mordecai. 
Their  patriotism  conquered  the  feeling  of  attach¬ 
ment  which  they  bore  for  their  mother  community 
across  the  seas,  for  in  the  same  way  that  the 
American  colonies  were  largely  the  children  of 
England,  so  was  the  Jewish  community  the  de¬ 
pendent  child  of  English  Jewry. 

Their  services  covered  a  number  of  fields.  They 
furnished  soldiers  and  officers  for  the  army.  They 
financed  the  Continental  Congress  and  the  political 

73 


74  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

leaders  of  the  day  in  the  period  prior  to  the  out¬ 
break  of  hostilities.  They  boycotted  English 
goods.  Coming  from  the  more  educated  and 
wealthier  classes  they  were  able  to  furnish  a  num¬ 
ber  of  officers  to  the  Continental  service. 
Four  Jews  were  Lieutenant  Colonels,  three  were 
Majors  and  there  were  at  least  six  captains. 
There  were  a  few  outstanding  figures  among  these 
Jewish  Revolutionary  soldiers,  men  who  received 
for  the  most  part  the  recognition  which  they  ade¬ 
quately  deserved. 

Major  Benjamin  Nones  could  well  be  called 
the  Jewish  Lafayette.  He  left  France  in  1777, 
and  came  to  Philadelphia  where  he  immediately 
enlisted  in  the  patriotic  cause.  He  started  as  a 
volunteer  private  and  rose  to  the  rank  of  Major. 
He  was  on  the  staffs  of  both  Lafayette  and  Wash¬ 
ington.  Later,  at  the  head  of  a  group  of  four 
hundred  men  he  was  attached  to  the  command  of 
Baron  de  Kalb  which  contained  a  number  of 
Jews.  When  de  Kalb  fell,  three  Jews  carried  him 
from  the  field,  Major  Nones,  Captain  Jacob  de  la 
Motta  and  Captain  Jacob  de  Leon. 

The  Pinto  family  of  Connecticut  had  three  and 
probably  four  brothers  who  took  an  active  part 
in  the  Revolution.  Abraham  Pinto  was  a  private 
in  Company  Y  Seventh  Regiment  of  Connecticut. 
Solomon  served  as  an  officer  and  was  wounded  in 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  75 

the  British  attack  on  New  Haven.  William  Pinto 
appears  on  the  revolutionary  records  as  a  volun¬ 
teer  both  in  1779  and  in  1781.  The  relationship 
of  the  last  to  the  others  has,  however,  not  been 
determined. 

The  South,  which  contained  a  larger  proportion 
of  Jews  than  it  does  at  present,  yielded  also  its 
quota  of  virile  Jewish  rebels  against  King 
George’s  yoke.  In  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  a 
corps  of  volunteer  infantry  composed  largely  of 
Jews  took  the  field.  These  soldiers  were  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Lushington  and  later 
saw  service  under  General  Moultrie  at  Beaufort. 
The  outstanding  figure  among  Jewish  revolu¬ 
tionary  heroes  was  Mordecai  Sheftal,  one  of  the 
first  white  children  born  in  Georgia.  At  the  out¬ 
break  of  hostilities  he  organized  the  Rebel 
Parochial  Committee.  In  his  capacity  of  Chair¬ 
man  of  that  body  he  regulated  the  internal  affairs 
of  Savannah.  During  the  month  of  July,  1777,  he 
was  appointed  Commissary  General  to  the  troops 
of  the  colony.  When  the  British  took  Savannah 
they  took  him  prisoner.  He  was  placed  on  board 
one  of  the  horrible  prison  ships,  where  more  than 
one  patriot  found  his  death.  In  1780  he  was 
placed  near  the  head  of  the  list  of  those  anathe¬ 
matized  by  the  British  authorities  in  their  Dis¬ 
qualifying  Act.  In  1782  he  appeared  in  Phila- 


76  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

delphia.  The  following  year  he  received  a  grant 
of  land  in  recognition  of  his  services  during  the 
war.  After  the  war  he  was  active  in  several 
spheres.  His  name  figures  prominently  in  the 
early  history  of  Freemasonry  in  the  United 
States.  The  Union  Society  of  Savannah  (organ¬ 
ized  in  1786),  still  one  of  Savannah’s  representa¬ 
tive  organizations,  has  the  honor  of  having  in  him 
one  of  its  original  founders. 

Two  members  of  one  family  rose  to  consider¬ 
able  rank.  Isaac  Franks,  one  of  them,  enlisted  at 
the  age  of  seventeen.  This  youngster  was  cap¬ 
tured  but  made  a  daring  escape  after  being  im¬ 
prisoned  for  three  months.  At  the  age  of  nine¬ 
teen,  he  was  made  a  foragemaster  and  three  years 
later  he  was  appointed  to  the  position  of  ensign 
in  the  7th  Massachusetts  Infantry.  He  was  a 
friend  of  George  Washington  and  the  latter 
stayed  at  his  house  in  Germantown  during  the 
prevalence  of  yellow  fever  in  that  vicinity  in 
1793.  His  portrait,  painted  by  his  friend  Gilbert 
Stuart,  is  in  the  Gibson  Collection  of  the  Pennsyl¬ 
vania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  in  Philadelphia. 

Major  David  Franks,  who  resided  in  Montreal, 
was  the  second  member  of  the  family  who  achieved 
distinction.  He  was  arrested  in  1775  for  speaking 
disrespectfully  of  the  King.  His  name  appears 
on  the  list  of  twenty  nine  prisoners  sent  to  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  77 

British  ministry,  “being  the  principal  persons 
settled  in  the  province  who  very  zealously  served 
the  rebels  in  the  winter  of  1775-1776  and  fled 
upon  their  leaving  it.”  Due  to  the  fact  that  he  was 
an  aide-de-camp  to  Benedict  Arnold,  some  sought 
to  implicate  him  in  the  latter’s  act  of  treachery, 
but  he  was  completely  exonerated  and  promoted 
in  the  public  service.  In  1781  he  was  sent  by 
Robert  Morris  as  a  bearer  of  dispatches  to  Jay 
in  Madrid  and  Franklin  in  Paris.  He  served  the 
United  States  on  a  number  of  occasions  in  the 
capacity  of  confidential  diplomatic  agent. 

There  were  a  number  of  other  Jewish  officers 
and  men  who  participated  in  the  Revolution  and 
displayed  on  the  battlefield  the  same  energy  and 
enthusiasm  which  they  manifested  in  the  economic 
upbuilding  of  the  country.  Particularly  did  their 
aid  prove  of  enormous  value  in  supplying  the 
sinews  of  war.  There  were  a  number  of  Jews 
who  gave  freely  to  the  country  in  the  form  of 
voluntary  contributions  and  loans.  Among  these 
was  a  Polish  immigrant  Jew  who  never  received 
one  penny  in  compensation  for  the  fortune  he 
generously  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  republic. 

Haym  Salomon,  born  in  Lissa,  Poland,  in  1740, 
had  migrated  to  America  four  years  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  He  spoke  a  number 
of  languages,  among  them  German,  French  and 


78  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Italian,  besides  Russian  and  Polish.  He  was 
arrested  by  the  British  officials  in  1776  on  the 
charge  of  espionage,  but  managed  to  escape  pun¬ 
ishment.  Indeed,  on  account  of  his  linguistic 
accomplishment  he  was  placed  in  the  British 
Commissariat.  This  position  he  used  to  effect 
the  escape  of  a  number  of  prisoners.  Later  he 
himself  escaped  to  Philadelphia  and  associated 
himself  with  Robert  Morris,  the  Superintendent 
of  Finance  for  the  colonies. 

According  to  the  documents  afterward  sub¬ 
mitted  to  Congress  he  advanced  to  the  govern¬ 
ment  $658,007.13,  an  enormous  sum  of  money  at 
that  time  when  we  consider  the  general  prostra¬ 
tion  of  commerce  and  business.  He  not  only  aided 
the  government  as  such,  but  he  also  financed  those 
outstanding  men  without  whom  the  founding  of 
the  republic  would  have  been  difficult.  It  was 
Salomon  who  released  men  like  Jefferson,  Madi¬ 
son,  Lee,  Steuben,  Monroe,  and  Mercer  from  the 
worries  of  procuring  a  livelihood  so  that  they 
might  devote  all  their  time  to  their  public  activity. 
Robert  Morris  writing  in  1783  said  that  many  of 
the  leaders  would  have  gone  to  jail  for  debt  had 
they  not  received  financial  assistance  from  private 
sources.  In  a  letter  written  to  the  Virginia 
authorities  Madison  declared,  “I  have  for  some 
time  been  a  pensioner  in  the  favor  of  Haym  Salo- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  79 

mon,  a  Jew  Broker.”.  .  .  And  again,  “The  kind¬ 
ness  of  our  little  friend  in  Front  street  [Haym 
Salomon]  ...  is  a  fund  that  will  preserve  me 
from  extremities,  but  I  never  resort  to  it  without 
great  mortification,  as  he  obstinately  rejects  all 
recompense.”  Henry  Wheaton,  voiced  the 
opinion  that  James  Wilson,  another  of  the  dele¬ 
gates  of  the  Continental  Congress  and  other  men 
instrumental  in  the  founding  of  the  republic,  would 
have  been  forced  to  retire  from  public  service, 
without  Salomon’s  aid  “administered  with  equal 
generosity  and  delicacy.” 

Salomon  himself  did  not  stand  idly  by  at  this 
critical  time  in  the  foundation  of  the  republic. 
Not  only  his  purse  but  also  his  financial  acumen 
was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  country.  It 
was  due  to  his  ability  that  the  negotiations  for  war 
subsidies  from  France  and  Holland  were  success¬ 
fully  completed.  The  French  government  ap¬ 
pointed  him  treasurer  of  the  French  army  which 
came  to  help  the  colonies.  This  position  he  filled 
without  compensation.  For  several  years  he  aided 
Don  Francisco  Renton,  the  secret  Ambassador  of 
Charles  III  of  Spain,  and  won  the  secret  support 
of  that  monarch  for  the  cause  of  the  American 
Revolution.  He  was  the  financial  link  between  the 
United  States  and  France;  he  was  the  broker  to 
the  French  consul  and  later  fiscal  agent  to  the 


8o  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

French  Minister  to  the  United  States,  Chevalier 
de  la  Luzerne.  He  was  the  chief  depositor  of  the 
Bank  of  North  America.  Robert  Morris  kept  a 
record  of  no  less  than  seventy-five  separate  finan¬ 
cial  transactions  engaged  in  by  Salomon  which 
enabled  the  credit  of  the  government  to  be  main¬ 
tained.  Up  to  the  present  time,  however,  the 
heirs  of  Salomon  have  never  received  one  penny 
in  compensation. 

There  are  others  also  that  might  be  mentioned 
in  this  record  of  Jewish  sacrifices  for  the  freedom 
of  the  republic.  Benjamin  Levy  and  Benjamin 
Jacobs  are  found  among  those  who  signed  the 
bills  of  credit  for  the  Continental  Congress. 
Isaac  Moses  of  Philadelphia  donated  out  of  his 
private  purse  $15,000  towards  the  colonial  treas¬ 
ury.  Herman  Levy  of  Philadelphia  was  another 
contributor,  while  Manuel  Mordecai  Noah,  gave 
$100,000,  in  addition  to  serving  as  an  assistant 
to  Washington. 

The  War  of  1812 

In  the  war  of  1812  a  number  of  Jewish  officers 
did  valiant  service.  Pre-eminent  among  them  was 
Colonel  Mordecai  Mayers  of  Rhode  Island, 
whose  heroic  deeds,  particularly  at  Sacketts  Har¬ 
bor,  are  vividly  described  in  Lossing’s  “Field 
Book  of  the  War  of  1812.”  Later  he  became 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  8i 

Mayor  of  Schenectady,  and  his  prominence  in 
political  affairs  is  attested  by  his  correspondence 
with  men  like  Martin  Van  Buren  and  Horatio 
Seymour.  Bernard  Harte,  the  grandfather  of 
Bret  Harte  who  became  one  of  America’s  great 
writers,  was  a  Divisional  Quartermaster.  Haym 
M.  Salomon,  the  son  of  Haym  Salomon,  of  revolu¬ 
tionary  fame,  was  captain  in  the  First  Brigade 
Infantry. 

In  the  naval  service,  Captain  John  Ordroneaux 
of  New  York,  born  in  Nantes,  France,  in  1778, 
distinguished  himself.  So  important  was  his  work 
that  the  American  naval  historian,  Edgar  Stanton 
Maclay,  devotes  to  his  achievements  an  entire 
chapter  of  his  work  on  American  privateers  dur¬ 
ing  the  War  of  1812.  His  career  was  a  series  of 
uninterrupted  successes.  In  command  of  a  priva¬ 
teer,  he  scoured  the  seas  for  British  merchant 
vessels.  During  the  month  of  March,  1814  he 
captured  nine  valuable  prizes.  While  in  command 
of  the  “Prince  de  Neufchatel”  he  was  pursued 
by  seventeen  British  men-of-war  and  succeeded  in 
eluding  them  all.  His  crowning  success  came  in 
October,  1814  when  he  captured  the  British 
frigate  “Endymion.” 

The  struggle  between  Ordroneaux’s  ship  and 
the  British  frigate  was  one  of  the  most  gruelling 
of  the  war  and  is  vividly  described  by  Maclay  in 


82  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

his  “History  of  American  Privateers” :  “Captain 
Ordroneaux  himself  fired  some  eighty  shots  at  the 
enemy.  Springing  up  the  sides  of  the  vessel,  the 
British  would  endeavor  to  gain  her  deck  but 
every  attempt  was  met  by  deadly  blows  by  the 
sturdy  defenders.  It  was  well  understood  that 
Captain  Ordroneaux  had  avowed  his  determina¬ 
tion  never  to  be  taken  alive  and  that  he  would 
blow  up  the  ship  with  all  his  hands  before  striking 
his  colors.  At  one  period  of  the  fight,  when  the 
British  had  gained  the  deck  and  were  gradually 
driving  the  Americans  back,  Ordroneaux  seized  a 
lighted  match,  ran  to  the  companionway  directly 
over  the  magazine,  called  out  to  his  men  that  he 
would  blow  the  ship  up  if  they  retreated  further. 
The  threat  had  the  desired  effect;  such  a  san¬ 
guinary  fight  could  not  be  of  long  duration  and  at 
the  end  of  twenty  minutes,  the  English  cried 
for  quarter,  upon  which  the  Americans  ceased 
fighting.” 

Ordroneaux  ended  his  heroic  career  in  South 
America  where  he  died  in  1841. 

Among  the  defenders  of  New  Orleans  was 
Judah  Touro,  a  well  known  philanthropist  who 
volunteered  his  services  at  the  approach  of  the 
British.  He  served  in  a  common  capacity,  and 
while  engaged  in  the  carrying  of  munition  was 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  83 

struck  by  a  British  shell.  He  survived,  however, 
and  the  remainder  of  his  life  was  devoted  to  deeds 
which  make  him  one  of  the  outstanding  figures  in. 
the  early  history  of  American  Jewry. 


CHAPTER  V 


THE  JEWS  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

It  was  nothing  new  in  history  for  Jew  to 
shoulder  arms  against  Jew  in  the  cause  of  an 
adopted  fatherland.  The  Mason  and  Dixon  line 
severed  Jews  from  Jews  as  sharply  as  it  alienated 
Southern  from  Northern  Christians.  Yet  the  gulf 
between  the  Jew  of  the  North  and  the  Jew  of  the 
South  was  not  solely  imposed  by  geography. 
There  was  a  difference  in  origin,  experience,  cul¬ 
ture,  tradition,  acquired  mental  attitudes  and 
standards. 

The  Southern  Jews,  of  the  Sephardic  type, 
remnants  of  the  early  Portuguese  and  Spanish 
settlements,  had  inhabited  for  two  centuries  the 
Southern  states,  and  were  rooted  firmly  in  the 
soil  and  imbued  with  the  spirit  surrounding  them. 
For  the  most  part  they  had  acquired  wealth  and 
owned  numerous  slaves  whom  they  exploited  for 
the  development  of  their  resources.  Their  pros¬ 
perity  and  long  tenancy  had  won  them  prestige 
equal  to  that  of  the  non-Jewish  natives,  and  they 
were  not  only  completely  at  home  amid  their  sur- 

84 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  85 

roundings,  but,  naturally,  supported  and  sanc¬ 
tioned  the  institutions  that  had  been  so  propitious 
to  them,  providing  them  with  wealth,  position  and 
comfort.  Like  other  wealthy  Southern  land  and 
slave  owners  they  were  convinced  that  their  finan¬ 
cial  stability  depended  upon  maintaining  the  ser¬ 
vices  of  the  negro  slaves.  It  is,  therefore,  hardly 
surprising  that  they  became  staunch  upholders  of 
the  slavery  system,  in  their  unwillingness  to  relin¬ 
quish  these  personal  benefits. 

There  are,  however,  reports  showing  instances 
of  Jews  displaying  unusual  sympathy  and  tender¬ 
ness  towards  their  slaves.  No  doubt  the  memory 
of  their  own  long  years  of  oppression  and  the  codes 
of  mercy  and  humanity  which  are  parts  of  Jewish 
religious  practice  rendered  them  more  thoughtful 
and  gentle  in  their  attitude  to  the  negro  than 
would  otherwise  be  expected. 

The  story  of  Judah  Touro  exemplifies  the 
philanthropy  and  humaneness  of  Jews  of  this 
type.  It  is  said  “that  the  negroes  who  waited  upon 
him  in  the  house  of  the  Shepards  with  whom  he 
had  lived  for  forty  years  were  all  emancipated  by 
his  aid  and  supplied  with  the  means  of  establishing 
themselves,  and  the  only  slave  he  personally  pos¬ 
sessed  he  trained  to  business,  then  emancipated, 
furnishing  him  with  money  and  valuable  advice.” 
Additional  evidence  of  this  spirit  is  seen  in  the 


86  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

reports  of  the  American  and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery 
States,  made  several  years  before  the  Civil  War, 
which  refer  to  some  Jews  “who  have  refused  to 
have  any  right  of  property  in  man  or  even  to  have 
any  slaves  about  them.” 

The  type  of  Jew  found  in  the  North  at  this 
period  was  ideally  susceptible  to  the  cause  of 
slavery’s  abolition.  For  the  most  part  they  repre¬ 
sented  recent  arrivals  coming  fresh  from  the  Ger¬ 
man  Revolution.  For  years  they  had  devoted 
themselves  to  revolutionary  enterprises  in  their 
native  countries  of  Germany  and  Austro-Hungary, 
struggling  to  terminate  their  oppression  and  to 
win  freedom.  When  in  1848  the  reactionary 
monarchical  faction  supressed  the  rebellion  these 
Jews  fled  with  the  hope  of  finding  an  ideal  state  of 
liberty  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  where  they 
dreamed  that  no  degree  of  oppression  would  be 
harbored.  The  struggle  against  slavery  which 
they  found  raging  here  appealed  to  them  as  a 
remnant  of  the  very  problems  that  had  confronted 
them  in  the  homeland,  and  their  sympathies  were 
readily  enlisted,  to  assert  for  another  people  this 
freedom  which  had  been  denied  to  them.  Thus, 
the  Jews  of  the  North  were  psychologically  well 
suited  to  ally  themselves  with  the  Union  and  they 
proved  to  be  ardent  in  their  struggle  for  what 
they  felt  to  be  the  cause  of  Justice. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  87 

Nevertheless,  just  as  in  the  South  there  are 
instances  of  Jews  opposing  slavery,  so  do  we  find 
Jews  who  abandoned  personal  advantages  in 
championing  the  continuation  of  slavery.  David 
Yulee  (born  Levy)  had  by  successive  steps  risen 
to  political  position  and  enjoyed  the  distinction  of 
being  the  first  Jew  elected  to  the  U.  S.  Senate. 
He  served  two  terms,  but  in  January,  1861  he 
interrupted  his  office  by  retiring  and  joining  the 
Confederacy.  Another  Jew,  Judge  Samuel  Hey- 
denfeldt,  of  California,  gave  up  a  profitable  prac¬ 
tice  before  the  Courts  because  his  position  as  a 
lawyer  automatically  bound  him  to  the  Union  and 
his  sympathies  were  with  the  Confederacy. 

The  Jewish  pulpit  figured  prominently  on  the 
slavery  question.  Such  men  as  Rabbi  David  Tin¬ 
horn,  who  was  compelled  to  forfeit  his  ministry 
in  Baltimore,  Sabato  Morais  of  Philadelphia  and 
Rabbis  Bernhard  Felsenthal  and  Liebman  Adler 
of  Chicago,  are  worthy  of  mention  in  connection 
with  their  firm,  sincere  expressions  and  earnest 
work  in  behalf  of  the  negroes.  But  Rabbi  Morris 
J.  Raphall  of  New  York,  by  quoting  the  Bible  in 
defense  of  slavery,  brought  storm  clouds  upon 
himself.  Taking  the  Bible  as  the  last  word  on 
ethical  or  moral  propriety,  he  adjudged  the  Bible’s 
sanction  of  slavery  irrefutable  and  all  endeavors 
to  abolish  slavery  as  setting  up  a  “Higher  Law,” 


88  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

and  consequently  sacrilegious.  His  pamphlet  en¬ 
titled  “Bible  View  on  Slavery”  created  a  furore 
and  unloosed  an  avalanche  of  replies  and  refuta¬ 
tions.  The  most  conspicuous  communication  came 
from  Michael  Heilprin  and  was  published  in  the 
New  York  Tribune .  This  work  was  held  the 
most  brilliant  exposition  on  abolition  ever  pro¬ 
duced  by  a  Jewish  anti-slavery  champion.  So 
clear  and  logical,  so  well-presented  was  Heilprin’s 
case  that  he  converted  numerous  readers  to  the 
cause  he  advocated.  Moreover,  he  succeeded  in 
dispelling  any  illusion,  which  might  have  been 
created  by  Rabbi  Raphall’s  attack,  that  Jews  were 
on  the  whole  pro-slavery  in  their  convictions. 
Michael  Heilprin,  who  came  to  this  country  from 
Hungary  in  1856,  represented  the  new  type  of 
Germanic  immigrant.  In  Hungary  he  had  won 
distinction  as  publisher,  poet  and  teacher,  lending 
his  writings  and  teachings  to  the  cause  of  Hun¬ 
gary’s  freedom  which  he  had  very  much  at  heart. 
The  defeat  of  his  hopes  in  1848  induced  his  re¬ 
moval  to  this  country  and  with  this  came  the  trans¬ 
fer  of  his  fund  of  scholarship  and  zeal  from  the 
old  country  to  the  new. 

The  Jews,  whom  Heilprin  typified,  many  of 
them  participants  in  the  German  Revolution  of 
1848,  became  staunch  Unionists  and  aided  ma¬ 
terially  in  the  organization  of  the  new  Republican 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  89 

party.  The  National  Convention  of  the  party  in 
i860,  which  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  as 
President,  had  two  German-Jewish  members  — 
Moritz  Pinner  and  Lewis  Naphtali  Dembitz. 
This  same  year  New  York  State  had  a  Jewish 
Presidential  Elector — Sigismund  Kaufman.  The 
succeeding  election,  which  renominated  Lincoln, 
was  also  well  represented  by  Jews.  Maier  Hirsh, 
born  in  Germany,  attended  the  Republican  Na¬ 
tional  Convention  of  1864  as  delegate  from  the 
State  of  Oregon,  and  A.  J.  Dittenhoefer,  born  in 
South  Carolina  but  residing  in  New  York,  served 
as  Elector. 

There  have  come  down  in  history  many  stories 
relating  to  Lincoln  and  the  love  shown  him  by 
various  individuals  or  groups  of  citizens.  The 
Jews,  too,  have  their  little  share  in  this  Lincoln 
lore.  One,  at  least,  may  be  cited  as  demonstrating 
the  cordial  feeling  existing  for  Lincoln  personally. 
A  Jew,  City  Clerk  Abraham  Kohn  of  Chicago, 
sent  to  President-elect  Lincoln  on  his  way  to 
Washington  in  1861,  a  silk  flag,  painted  in  colors. 
On  its  folds  were  lettered  in  black  Hebrew  char¬ 
acters  the  third  to  ninth  verses  of  the  first  chapter 
of  Joshua,  ending:  “Have  I  not  commanded  thee? 
Be  strong  and  of  good  courage;  be  not  afraid, 
neither  be  thou  dismayed;  for  the  Lord  thy  God 
is  with  thee  whithersoever  thou  goest.” 


90  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

A  dominating  figure  throughout  the  period  of 
the  War  was  a  Jew,  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  termed 
by  historians  and  biographers,  “The  brains  of  the 
Confederacy.”  He  was  born  in  St.  Thomas, 
West  Indies,  but  while  quite  young  moved  to  the 
United  States,  settling  eventually  in  New  Orleans, 
where  his  family  resided  for  many  years.  He 
studied  law  at  Yale,  but  did  not  complete  his 
courses.  Instead  he  served  as  notary’s  clerk  in 
New  Orleans  until  he  was  able  to  qualify  for  ad¬ 
mittance  to  the  bar.  Even  in  his  earliest  legal 
activities,  he  proved  to  be  a  clever  logician  and 
brilliant  orator.  He  held  a  number  of  political 
offices  as  one  of  the  Whig  party.  In  1852  he  be¬ 
came  State  Senator  and  in  1853  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  U.  S.  Senate  as  a  Whig.  About 
this  time  the  Whig  party  began  to  go  to  pieces, 
due  to  a  split  between  the  northern  and  southern 
units  on  the  question  of  secession.  Denouncing  the 
party  in  this  feeble  state,  he  urged  that  its  diverg¬ 
ing  elements  be  moulded  into  one  strong  Southern 
party,  upholding  slavery  and  the  right  of  states 
to  secede  from  the  Union.  When  he  failed  to 
gain  his  point,  he  withdrew  from  the  Whig  party 
and  transferred  his  allegiance  to  the  Democratic 
administration.  As  early  as  1856  he  eloquently 
advocated  secession  in  addressing  the  Senate  on 
the  Kansas  Bill,  nor  did  he  desist  during  the  sub- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  91 

sequent  term  of  office  to  which  he  was  re-elected. 
In  January,  1861  Louisiana  seceded,  Benjamin’s 
term  in  the  Senate  automatically  expiring.  The 
new  confederacy  had  formed  with  Jefferson  Davis 
at  the  head,  and  the  President  named  Benjamin 
his  Attorney-General.  His  official  duties  in  this 
capacity  were  negligible,  as  no  court  had  been 
formed,  but  he  displayed  such  helpfulness,  tact  and 
shrewdness  that  in  successive  steps  he  became, 
first,  Secretary  of  War  and,  next,  Secretary  of 
State.  His  position  as  Secretary  of  War  subjected 
him  to  continual  abuse,  as  he  was  personally 
blamed  by  army  officials  for  all  paucity  of  equip¬ 
ment  or  losses  due  to  improper  provision  by  the 
War  Department.  He  assumed  the  burden  of  the 
censure,  rather  than  reveal  the  deplorable  truth 
that  the  department  was  impoverished  of  neces¬ 
sities,  due  to  lack  of  funds  in  the  Confederate 
Treasury.  President  Davis  did  not  fail  to  appre¬ 
ciate  this  diplomatic  behavior  and  largeness  of 
spirit.  Benjamin’s  appointment  as  Secretary  of 
State  was  his  reward  for  faithful  devotion  to  the 
Confederacy  and  its  head,  his  utter  dependability, 
his  calmness  and  assurance  in  adversity  and  stead¬ 
fastness  in  carrying  out  his  duties,  despite  the  dis¬ 
heartening  recriminations  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

His  chief  problem  was  to  win  the  aid  of  foreign 
maritime  powers,  in  order  to  remove  the  blockade 


92  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

which  would  enable  the  Confederacy  to  ship  cot¬ 
ton,  the  principal  marketable  product  of  the 
South;  but  he,  as  well  as  other  emissaries  failed 
in  this  undertaking.  While  Spain  and  England 
remained  obdurate  in  their  opposition  to  slavery 
and  support  of  the  North,  he  did  come  close  to 
winning  France,  mainly  by  personally  interviewing 
Mercier,  the  French  minister.  However  no  tangi¬ 
ble  benefits  materialized  and  all  hope  of  recogni¬ 
tion  by  a  foreign  power  was  shattered.  Benjamin 
bravely  withstood  the  military  losses  preceding 
and  predicating  the  final  downfall,  but  with  the  fall 
of  Richmond,  he  made  his  escape  to  the  West 
Indies,  from  where  he  worked  his  way  amid  hard¬ 
ships  and  dangers  to  England.  Here  he  was  cor¬ 
dially  received  by  British  diplomats,  making 
friends  with  men  like  Disraeli  and  Gladstone. 
Despite  his  advanced  years,  he  prepared  for  the 
British  bar,  was  admitted  and  ultimately  appointed 
one  of  the  Queen’s  Counsel.  His  Treatise  on  the 
Law  of  Sale  of  Personal  Property  became  cele¬ 
brated  in  the  legal  world  and  accepted  as  the  last 
word,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  In  1872  he 
won  a  patent  of  procedure  placing  him  in  rank 
above  all  future  Queen’s  Counsels.  His  death  in 
1884  brought  his  brilliant  career  to  an  end. 

•  ••••• 

The  Jewish  population  at  the  outbreak  of  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  93 

War  is  conservatively  estimated  at  150,000.  A 
figure  as  high  as  400,000  has  been  ventured  by 
some  authorities,  but  this  has  been  rejected  as 
excessive.  Statistics  and  documents  are  insufficient 
to  throw  light  on  this  point.  It  is  unsafe  to  base 
calculations  on  published  lists  of  names  available, 
inasmuch  as  it  is  true  that  typically  Jewish  names 
such  as  Isaacs,  Jacobs,  Abrams,  etc.,  etc.,  were 
common  among  Christians,  and  Anglicized  or 
American  names  were  adopted  by  Jews,  making 
their  Jewish  identification  by  name  impossible. 

To  gauge  the  number  of  Jews  who  participated 
in  the  War  is  similarly  difficult.  Recruits  were 
not  required  to  report  their  religions  or  origins 
on  official  army  records,  nor  were  the  young 
Jewish  American  or  German  born  soldiers  suffi¬ 
ciently  religious  to  make  their  faith  noticeable. 
However,  consensus  of  opinion,  confirmed  by  in¬ 
vestigation,  indicates  that  about  10,000  Jewish 
soldiers  enrolled.  Mr.  Seddon,  the  Confederate 
Secretary  of  War,  when  requested  to  release 
Jewish  soldiers  for  the  Rosh  Hashanah  and  Yom 
Kippur  holidays,  expressed  the  belief  that  there 
were  from  ten  to  twelve  thousand  Jews  in  the  Con¬ 
federate  Army  and  that  granting  such  a  request 
would  utterly  disrupt  certain  commands.  Mr. 
Simon  Wolf,  who  has  compiled  invaluable  ma¬ 
terial  on  this  subject,  draws  the  conclusion  that 


I 


94  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

“the  enlistment  of  Jewish  soldiers,  North  and 
South,  reached  proportions  considerably  in  excess 
of  their  ratio  to  the  general  population.” 

The  State  Historical  Society  of  Alabama  has 
initiated  the  work  of  compiling  and  publishing 
the  names  of  all  the  Jewish  soldiers  participating 
in  the  War.  Their  latest  report  shows  that  sev~ 
eral  thousand  names  have  already  been  gathered. 
The  estimate  of  this  Society  agrees  with  that  of 
Simon  Wolf  in  that  10,000  Jews  are  accredited  to 
the  army,  6,000  to  the  North  and  4,000  to  the 
South.  Of  these  10,000  there  is  a  record  of  nine 
generals,  eighteen  colonels,  forty  majors,  200 
captains,  twenty-five  surgeons  and  last,  but  by  no 
means  least,  one  Chaplain.  Whatever  obstacles 
set  by  religion  or  prejudice  had  to  be  overcome  by 
the  various  officers  in  rising  to  their  respective 
ranks  may  be  classed  with  the  usual  type  of  diffi¬ 
culty  confronting  Jews  in  any  promotion.  But  the 
gaining  of  a  Chaplain  in  the  army  marks  a  victory 
for  which  many  had  to  combat.  The  office  of 
Chaplain  by  the  army’s  definition,  was  restricted 
only  to  ministers  embracing  the  Christian  faith. 
Applications  to  appoint  a  Jewish  Chaplain  could 
not  be  considered,  and  it  was  only  after  heated 
protests  and  special  appeals  by  prominent  Jews 
that  the  concession  was  gained,  and  a  Jew — Rabbi 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  95 

Jacob  Frankel — was  appointed  as  a  hospital  chap¬ 
lain. 

The  Confederate  army,  it  is  natural  to  conclude, 
had  a  larger  number  of  Jewish  officers  than  the 
Union  army,  mainly  because  the  Jews  of  the 
South  were  for  the  most  part  natives,  whereas  the 
Jews  of  the  North  were  comparative  newcomers, 
and  obviously,  the  natives  had  a  greater  chance 
for  advancement  than  recent  arrivals  in  the 
country. 

A  feature  that  was  decidedly  characteristic  of 
the  Confederate  army  was  the  presence  of 
“brothers-in-arms,”  as  they  were  termed  by  Simon 
Wolf.  That  is  to  say,  a  family  of  brothers  in  a 
given  community  would  group  together  with  their 
neighbors  and  enlist  in  the  same  company  to  de¬ 
fend  their  state  or  part  of  the  country.  The 
brothers-in-arms  whose  names  have  been  recorded 
are  six  Cohen  brothers  from  North  Carolina,  five 
Moses  brothers  from  South  Carolina,  three  Cohen 
brothers  from  Arkansas,  three  Levy  brothers 
from  Virginia,  three  Moses  brothers  from  Ala¬ 
bama,  three  Levy  brothers  from  Louisiana,  three 
Goldsmith  brothers- — two  from  Georgia  and  one 
from  South  Carolina.  The  Jonas  family  con¬ 
tributed  four  brothers  to  the  Confederate  army 
from  Louisiana,  but  the  father,  Abraham  Jonas, 
and  one  son  served  in  the  Union  ranks.  Abraham 


g6  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Jonas  was  a  close  friend  of  Lincoln.  His  residence 
in  Illinois  and  appointment  to  the  Illinois  legisla¬ 
ture  in  1849  brought  him  into  prominence  and 
acquainted  him  with  Lincoln.  In  1856  he  came  in 
closer  contact  with  Lincoln  when  they  were  both 
appointed  Presidential  electors  from  the  state  of 
Illinois  Republican  Convention  on  the  Fremont 
ticket.  Lincoln  at  one  time,  after  his  election  as 
President,  was  attacked  as  being  affiliated  with 
the  “Know  Nothing”  party.  Nicolay  and  Hay  in 
their  biography  of  Lincoln  quote  a  letter  written 
to  Jonas  by  the  President,  which  conclusively 
establishes  Lincoln’s  innocence  of  the  malignant 
accusation.  This  friendship  between  the  Presi¬ 
dent  and  Jonas  has  a  touching  ending.  On  his 
death-bed  Jonas,  wishing  to  see  his  son,  Charles 
H.,  who  was  a  war  prisoner,  taken  from  a  Con¬ 
federate  Regiment,  conveyed  his  desire  to  Lincoln. 
Lincoln’s  prompt  order,  “Allow  Charles  H. 
Jonas,  now  a  prisoner  of  war  at  Johnson’s  Island, 
a  parole  of  three  weeks  to  visit  his  dying  father, 
Abraham  Jonas,  at  Quincy,  Ill.,”  effected  this  re¬ 
union. 

Another  of  these  Jonas  brothers,  Benjamin  F. 
Jonas,  also  a  Confederate  soldier,  served  in  the 
U.  S.  Senate  from  1879  to  1885. 

In  the  Confederacy,  Alabama  contributed  the 
greatest  number  of  Jews  to  the  army — about  150. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  97 

Georgia  came  second,  with  140  Jews,  and  in  addi¬ 
tion,  a  special  distinction  was  accorded  the  Jews 
by  the  appointment  of  Octavus  Cohen  as  quarter¬ 
master  of  the  Georgian  troops.  Isidore  Straus, 
the  renowned  Jew  and  Titanic  victim,  enlisted 
from  Georgia;  he  helped  organize  a  regiment,  of 
which  he  was  elected  lieutenant.  This  commis¬ 
sion  was  recalled,  however,  because  of  his  youth.  In 
1863  he  was  sent  to  England  by  the  Confederacy 
to  secure  ships  for  blockade  service.  Virginia  held 
her  own  with  113  Jews,  and  in  this  state,  too,  a 
Jew  deserves  special  mention — Adolphus  Meyer, 
who  enlisted  with  the  first  company  mustered  into 
service.  He  was  active  during  the  entire  war,  and 
held  the  position  of  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 
Years  later,  in  1891,  he  was  elected  to  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  served  nine  terms,  until 
his  death  in  1908.  In  the  Jewish  cemetery  at 
Richmond,  Va.,  lie  buried  seventeen  soldiers,  of 
whom  one  was  a  captain,  three  lieutenants  and 
one  a  corporal. 

Ben  Oppenheimer,  from  Montgomery,  was  the 
only  deaf-mute  who  ever  enlisted  in  the  army. 

Colonel  Raphael  J.  Moses,  of  Georgia,  served 
on  the  staff  of  General  Longstreet  and  was  ap¬ 
pointed  Chief  Commissary  of  the  State.  Surgeon- 
General  David  deLeon  who  had  participated  in 
the  Mexican  War,  and  Assistant  Adjutant  Gen- 


98  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

eral  J.  Randolph  Mordecai  served  gallantly  in  the 
Civil  War.  Mississippi’s  annals  are  honored  by 
the  name  of  Samuel  Ullman,  of  the  16th  Infantry 
Regiment,  who  continued  throughout  the  War, 
though  wounded  twice.  In  1891  he  became  Rabbi 
of  the  Emanuel  Congregation  at  Birmingham, 
Alabama. 

Turning  to  the  Union  Army,  we  find  men  like 
Frederick  Knefler,  born  in  Hungary,  appointed 
colonel  of  the  79th  Indiana  Regiment  and  later 
made  Brevet-Brigadier-General  in  recognition  of 
his  gallant  deeds;  Edward  S.  Solomon,  or  Salo¬ 
mon,  born  in  Schleswig-Holstein,  who  came  to  this 
country  in  early  manhood,  settled  in  Chicago, 
served  there  as  Alderman  in  i860  and  at  the  out¬ 
break  of  the  War  was  commissioned  second- 
lieutenant  in  the  24th  Illinois  Regiments.  Within 
two  years  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major, 
then,  lieutenant-colonel  and  later,  colonel  of  the 
82nd  Infantry,  which  he  assisted  in  organizing. 
With  General  Howe  he  witnessed  the  battles  of 
Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  Chattanooga,  Look¬ 
out  Mountain  and  Missionary  Ridge.  His  final 
rank  was  Brevet-Brigadier-General.  Returning 
to  civil  life  after  the  War  he  was  appointed  clerk 
of  County  Cook,  Ill.,  and  in  1870  Governor  of 
Washington  Territory.  Resigning  from  this  po¬ 
sition  in  1874,  he  moved  to  San  Francisco,  in 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  99 

which  city  he  was  elected  into  the  California 
Legislature  and  became  District  Attorney  of  San 
Francisco. 

One  of  the  most  romantic  histories  is  that  of 
Leopold  Blumenberg.  He  had  been  in  the  United 
States  only  about  seven  years  when  the  War 
broke  out,  and  he  immediately  abandoned  a  lucra¬ 
tive  business  in  which  he  was  engaged  in  Balti¬ 
more.  He  assisted  in  organizing  the  Fifth  Mary¬ 
land  Regiment,  of  which  he  was  made  major. 
Goading  the  nearby  secessionists  by  his  pro-union 
activities,  he  barely  escaped  one  night  being 
hanged;  his  house  was  guarded  and  barricaded 
for  several  nights.  He  served  near  Hampton 
Roads  as  head  of  his  Regiment;  at  Antietam  he 
suffered  severe  wounds.  President  Lincoln  ap¬ 
pointed  him  Provost-Marshal  of  the  Third  Mary¬ 
land  District.  Later,  during  Johnson’s  adminis¬ 
tration,  he  was  appointed  to  a  position  in  the 
Baltimore  custom  house. 

Philip  J.  Joachimsen  won  renown  both  in  a  legal 
and  military  capacity.  For  a  time  he  served  as 
Substitute  U.  S.  Attorney  by  special  provision  of 
an  act  of  Congress.  During  the  war  he  helped 
organize  the  59th  Volunteer  Regiment  of  New 
York  and  was  brevetted  Brigadier-General,  after 
having  been  injured  while  with  his  Regiment  in 
New  Orleans. 


ioo  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

General  Wm.  Mayer  was  the  proud  possessor 
of  a  letter  of  thanks  from  President  Lincoln  for 
assistance  given  during  the  Draft  Riots  in  New 
York. 

Marcus  M.  Spiegel,  who  enlisted  in  the  67th 
Ohio  Infantry  and  who  for  his  brave  fighting  was 
successively  promoted  up  to  the  rank  of  Lieuten¬ 
ant-Colonel,  met  his  death  in  service,  just  after 
his  officers  had  recommended  him  for  promotion 
to  the  Brigadier-Generalship. 

Max  Einstein  organized  the  27th  Pennsylvania 
Infantry  Regiment,  which  commenced  activities  in 
May,  1861.  Under  Colonel  Einstein’s  leadership, 
the  unfortunate  retreat  of  the  Union  Army  in  the 
first  battle  of  Bull  Run  was  partly  covered  by  his 
regiment.  He  was  nominated  Consul  at  Nurem- 
burg,  Germany,  by  President  Lincoln.  Einstein’s 
regiment  had  about  30  Jewish  officers,  of  varying 
ranks,  and  about  60  privates.  A  regiment, 
known  as  the  Cameron  Dragoons,  or  the  Fifth 
Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  first  went  into  service  un¬ 
der  the  leadership  of  a  Jewish  colonel,  Max 
Friedman. 

Abraham  Hart  attained  the  position  of  Adju¬ 
tant-General  of  a  brigade  in  General  Blenker’s 
Division  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  taking  part 
in  the  battles  of  the  Peninsular  campaign. 

The  Confederate  navy  included  about  twelve 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  ioi 

Jewish  officers,  which  fact  indicates  that  a  propor¬ 
tionately  larger  number  of  Jews  must  have  served 
in  the  navy  as  non-commissioned  seamen. 

The  Northern  Navy  brought  distinction  to  Cap¬ 
tain  Uriah  P.  Levy, — who,  due  to  old  age  did  not 
participate  in  the  Civil  War,  but  who  up  to  that 
time  held  high  office  in  the  U.  S.  Navy.  Cabin 
boy  at  the  age  of  1 1,  at  14  he  was  apprenticed  as 
sailor  and  climbed  steadily,  until  at  20  he  was 
made  master  of  a  schooner.  In  October,  1812, 
a  commission  was  awarded  him  as  sailing  master 
by  the  U.  S.  Navy,  which  threw  him  in  the  thick 
of  the  combat  with  England.  He  captured  a  num¬ 
ber  of  notable  prizes  and  in  turn  endured  some 
wretched  losses.  He  and  his  crew  were  detained 
as  prisoners  in  England  for  sixteen  months.  In 
1817  the  Senate  confirmed  his  appointment  as 
Lieutenant  in  the  Navy.  Ill-feeling  between  Levy 
and  some  fellow  officers  at  one  time  sowed  the 
seeds  of  a  notorious  conflict.  He  killed  a  man  in 
a  duel,  an  act  for  which  he  was  court-martialed 
six  times  and  deprived  of  his  rank  as  Captain. 
He  defended  himself  vigorously,  won  out  and  re¬ 
gained  his  position.  Unfortunately,  he  died 
shortly  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  His 
tombstone  bears  a  telling  inscription: 

“He  was  the  father  of  the  law  for  the  abolition 


102  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

of  the  barbarous  practice  of  corporal  punishment 
in  the  U.  S.  Navy.” 

As  a  summary,  no  better  estimate  of  the  Jewish 
contribution  to  the  Civil  War  can  be  given  than 
the  following  words  of  Madison  C.  Peters  in  his 
work  entitled  “Justice  to  the  Jews”: 

“It  was  left  for  the  Civil  War  to  bring  out  the 
qualities  of  the  Jew  as  a  genuine  soldier,  as  one 
whom  no  terrors  could  daunt,  no  dangers  intimi¬ 
date,  no  sufferings  weaken,  an  automaton  of  flesh 
and  bone  impervious  to  fatigue  and  hunger.  The 
Civil  War  tried  the  souls  of  men  as  well  as  their 
bodies,  yet  the  Jew  did  not  shrink.  When  Lin¬ 
coln  called  for  volunteers  the  sons  of  Israel  rushed 
to  don  the  blue  and  followed  the  flag  to  death 
or  victory.  Great  numbers  were  also  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Confederacy,  —  a  fact  which  stifles  the 
calumny  that  the  Jew  when  he  does  fight  has  no 
heart  in  the  struggle,  but  merely  fights  perfunc¬ 
torily  and  with  no  object  in  view.  For  the  time 
being,  Judaism  was  forgotten  and  the  Jew  in  Blue 
faced  the  Jew  in  Gray  with  a  deadly  earnestness, 
each  believing  heart  and  soul  in  the  cause  for 
which  he  had  unsheathed  his  sword.  ‘Stonewall’ 
Jackson  and  Robert  E.  Lee  gallantly  fought  for 
the  ‘Lost  Cause’,  and  though  they  were  defeated, 
they  were  not  conquered,  and  of  all  the  brave  sons 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  103 

of  the  South  who  fought  and  bled  beneath  their 
leadership,  none  put  up  a  more  stubborn  fight  than 
the  Jewish  Confederates.” 

The  Spanish  American  War 

The  call  for  volunteers  met  with  an  enthusiastic 
response  on  the  part  of  the  Jews.  Ancient  mem¬ 
ories  of  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  their  people  and 
the  horrors  of  the  expulsion  of  1492  stimulated 
them  to  bear  their  portion  of  the  national  burden. 
Jewish  newspapers,  particularly,  were  very  ener¬ 
getic  in  calling  upon  the  young  Jews  to  avenge 
both  the  destruction  of  the  Maine  and  the  annihi¬ 
lation  of  mediaeval  Spanish  Jewry.  More  than 
four  thousand  Jews  came  forward,  according  to 
the  records  of  the  War  Department,  which  rati¬ 
fied  furloughs  for  the  Holy  days.  A  number  of 
these  volunteers  were  recent  immigrants  who  had 
already  received  military  training  in  the  armies 
of  Russia  and  Austria.  They  served  with  distinc¬ 
tion,  eliciting  the  commendation  of  Colonel  Roose¬ 
velt  and  other  military  leaders. 

There  were  fifteen  Jews  who  went  down  to  a 
watery  grave  with  the  Maine.  The  first  to  enlist 
was  a  Jew;  the  first  man  to  fall  in  the  battle  of 
Manila  was  Sergeant  Maurice  Juster  of  the  First 
California  Volunteers,  a  regiment  which  num¬ 
bered  100  Jews.  Colonel  Roosevelt’s  famous 


104  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

regiment  of  Rough  Riders  contained  a  half  dozen 
Jews,  among  them  one  who  by  his  valor  won  the 
rank  of  lieutenant.  Non-commissioned  officers 
numbered  several  hundred. 

In  the  Navy,  there  were  twenty  officers,  all  of 
them  graduates  of  the  Naval  Academy.  Edward 
David  Taussig  was  Commander  of  the  Benning¬ 
ton  and  took  possession  of  Wake  Island.  Later, 
when  the  Island  of  Guam  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States,  Taussig  served  there  as  the  Chief  of  the 
Administration.  In  1909  he  was  retired  with  the 
rank  of  Rear-Admiral. 

Another  outstanding  figure  among  the  Jews 
who  served  in  the  Navy  was  Lieutenant  Comman¬ 
der  Adolph  Marix.  He  graduated  from  the  aca¬ 
demy  in  1868  and  in  1869  became  an  ensign.  In 
1893  he  became  a  lieutenant-commander  and  com¬ 
mander  in  1899.  On  April  11,  1898,  two  months 
after  the  Maine  was  sunk  he  was  appointed  to  the 
command  of  the  Scorpion. 

When  the  investigation  to  determine  the  cause 
of  the  explosion  on  the  Maine  was  set  afoot, 
Marix  was  judge  advocate  of  the  Board  of  In¬ 
quiry.  He  compiled  the  momentous  report  on 
which  depended  largely  the  issues  of  peace  and 
war  and  presented  it  in  person  to  President  Mc¬ 
Kinley  on  March  26,  1898.  During  the  conflict 
he  displayed  unusual  bravery  in  two  engagements. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  105 

Later,  when  William  Howard  Taft  became  Gov¬ 
ernor  General  of  the  Philippines,  Marix  served 
with  him  in  the  capacity  of  Naval  Attache,  and 
was  made  Rear-Admiral  in  1908. 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  JEWS  AND  THE  WORLD  WAR 

The  Jewish  energy  and  intellectual  powers 
which  had  earned  for  itself  a  reputation  in  times 
of  peace  turned  at  the  call  of  the  war  to  service  on 
behalf  of  the  national  defense. 

The  first  mobilization  of  the  civil  resources  of 
the  country  was  undertaken  by  the  Advisory  Com¬ 
mission  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense.  This 
body,  in  the  words  of  the  historian  of  this  civil 
mobilization,  Grosvenor  B.  Clarkson,  “shaped 
and  directed  the  multitudinous  contacts  of  the 
Government  with  industry,  business  and  the  daily 
life  of  the  people.”  It  was  the  source  from  which 
emanated  all  the  ideas  which  might  be  utilized  for 
perfecting  the  civil  front  and  making  it  capable  of 
bearing  the  hardships  and  necessities  of  the  war. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  conflict,  there  were 
seven  men  who  constituted  the  staff  at  the  head  of 
the  civil  front.  Of  these  seven  men,  three  were 
Jews — Bernard  M.  Baruch,  Samuel  Gompers  and 
Julius  Rosenwald.  Though  but  three  percent  of 
the  population,  American  Jewry  contributed  al- 

106 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  107 

most  one  half  of  the  personnel  of  the  body  which 
guided  the  destinies  of  the  country  in  the  early 
part  of  the  struggle. 

Later  on  the  form  of  the  Advisory  Council 
was  changed  and  the  name  that  was  given  to  it  was 
the  War  Industrial  Board.  A  change  of  person¬ 
nel  took  place  and  the  power  was  centralized  in 
the  person  of  the  Chairman  who  was  given  the 
sole  power  of  decision.  Upon  him  rested  a  more 
tremendous  responsibility  than  upon  any  other 
individual  and  correspondingly  there  was  vested 
in  him  the  power  of  virtual  dictatorship  over  the 
civil  life  of  the  American  community.  Bernard 
M.  Baruch  stood  at  the  helm  of  the  mobilization 
of  civil  resources;  he  in  fact  was  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  front  behind  the  front. 

Baruch’s  peculiar  qualifications  lay  in  his  unsur¬ 
passed  knowledge  of  the  make-up  and  potentiali¬ 
ties  of  American  industry.  “He  had  examined 
industry,”  writes  Grosvenor  B.  Clarkson,  the  his¬ 
torian  of  the  War  Industries  Board,  “as  a  biolo¬ 
gist  scrutinizes  life,  organically  and  functionally. 
He  developed  a  sterling  ability  to  deduce  facts 
from  figures  and  the  event  from  the  process.  Cool 
in  judgment,  remorseless  in  decision,  methodical  in 
action,  he  was  nevertheless  a  man  of  susceptible 
emotion,  impulsive,  kindly  and  sympathetic.” 

Samuel  Gompers  was  born  in  England  in  1850. 


108  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

He  started  life  as  a  cigar  maker,  a  trade  which 
he  learned  at  the  age  of  ten.  Later  he  emigrated 
to  America  where  he  helped  to  organize  the  Cigar 
Makers  International.  His  organizing  ability 
soon  won  general  recognition,  and  in  1882  he  was 
elected  to  the  highest  place  in  the  American  Labor 
world,  the  presidency  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor.  The  first  six  years  he  served  without 
any  remuneration,  working  at  the  same  time  in- 
defatigably  as  the  champion  of  the  working 
masses.  At  his  instance,  numerous  laws  in  the 
interests  of  the  organization  he  represented  were 
passed.  He  secured  a  ten  hour  limit  for  railway 
workers,  the  regulation  of  child  labor  and  the  con¬ 
trol  of  sweat  shops.  From  an  obscure  position, 
Gompers  has  risen  to  a  place  of  great  power  in 
the  public  and  political  life  of  America.  At  the 
peace  conference  he  served  as  President  of  the 
International  Commission  of  Labor.  He  voices 
the  aspiration  of  the  vast  number  of  American 
workingmen  and  workingwomen  not  only  by 
tongue  but  also  by  pen  and  has  written  several 
volumes  embodying  the  point  of  view  he  has  so 
forcefully  expounded  for  several  decades. 

The  other  member  of  the  Advisory  Commis¬ 
sion,  Julius  Rosenwald,  is  today  one  of  the  mer¬ 
chant  princes  of  the  country  and  a  supporter  on  a 
lavish  scale  of  a  multitudinous  array  of  philan- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  109 

thropic  institutions.  Born  in  Springfield,  Illinois, 
in  1862,  he  remains  perhaps  the  greatest  mer¬ 
chant  in  his  native  state.  Since  1910,  he  has  been 
the  President  of  Sears  Roebuck,  the  largest  mail 
order  house  in  the  country.  In  1918  he  served 
on  a  special  mission  to  France.  Fie  has  been  par¬ 
ticularly  liberal  to  institutions  which  aim  to  uplift 
the  negro  race.  He  has  supported  with  an  open 
hand  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  rural  schools  for  colored 
children.  On  his  fiftieth  birthday  he  donated 
$700,000  to  the  University  of  Chicago.  He  has 
also  given  $3,400,000  to  negro  uplift.  In  addi¬ 
tion  he  has  endowed  the  medical  school  of  Chi¬ 
cago  University  with  a  half  million  dollar  fund, 
while  during  the  late  war  he  expended  $1,000,000 
on  relief  for  his  suffering  Jewish  brethren  beyond 
the  sea.  His  benefactions  cover  a  number  of  in¬ 
stitutions  without  distinction  to  race  or  creed. 

In  the  Department  of  War,  Professor  Felix 
Frankfurter  of  Harvard  served  in  the  capacity  of 
Assistant  to  Secretary  Baker.  Previously  to  this 
he  served  as  secretary  and  counsel  to  the  Media¬ 
tion  Commission  which  pacified  the  serious  con¬ 
flicts  in  the  copper,  oil,  lumber  and  packing-house 
industry.  After  the  successful  termination  of  his 
duties  here,  a  policies  board  was  created  to  assist 
him  in  the  work  of  coordinating  the  activities  of 
the  Department  of  Labor  with  the  production 


no  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

section  of  the  War  Department,  the  Navy  De¬ 
partment  and  the  Shipping  Board.  It  was  Pro¬ 
fessor  Frankfurter’s  activity  that  linked  these 
various  bodies  together  and  rendered  them  more 
efficient  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  struggle.  The 
idea  of  war  savings  stamps  was  originated  by  a 
Jew,  Manny  Straus,  while  the  scheme  of  war  risk 
insurance  was  worked  out  by  another  Jew,  Gen¬ 
eral  S.  Herbert  Wolfe.  Eugene  Meyer,  Jr.  served 
as  a  member  of  the  War  Finance  Corporation  and 
after  the  war  in  1919  became  the  chairman  of  that 
highly  important  financial  organization. 

Scattered  throughout  the  various  boards  and 
bureaus  of  the  Government  were  a  large  number 
of  Jews  who  had  earned  a  reputation  for  ability 
in  civil  life  and  who  upon  the  initiation  of  hostili¬ 
ties  gave  up  their  private  business  for  the  public 
cause.  The  pre-eminence  which  these  Jews  earned 
in  their  business  life  in  time  of  peace  admirably 
fitted  them  for  tackling  the  multitudinous  prob¬ 
lems  of  organization  and  business  that  arose  with 
the  carrying  on  of  war.  Far  beyond  its  due  pro¬ 
portion,  American  Jewry  gave  forth  from  its 
midst  a  number  of  indispensable  leaders  at  the 
civil  front. 

Nor  did  this  participation  hinder  the  activity 
of  Jews  on  the  military  front.  The  records  of 
the  conflict  are  still  inadequate  to  give  a  complete 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  hi 

and  full  picture  of  the  American  Jew  in  the  Great 
War.  Dr.  Julian  W.  Leavitt  of  the  Bureau  of 
Jewish  Social  Research  has,  however,  done  ex¬ 
cellent  pioneer  work  in  the  tabulation  and  inter¬ 
pretation  of  the  available  statistics  which  had 
been  gathered  by  the  Jewish  Welfare  Board. 

About  1 50,000  records  of  Jewish  soldiers  were 
collected.  Of  this  amount  140,000  have  been  tab¬ 
ulated  and  classified  and  it  is  therefore  on  the 
basis  of  the  latter  that  the  more  specific  conclu¬ 
sions  are  drawn.  Approximately  114,000  served 
in  the  army,  13,500  in  the  navy,  and  2,200  in  the 
marine  corps.  Of  the  remaining  11,000  it  has 
been  impossible  to  obtain  the  exact  statistics. 

Here,  too,  in  the  military  participation  of  the 
Jew  in  the  war,  there  emerges  the  fact  of  his  dis¬ 
proportionate  contribution  to  the  fighting  arm  of 
the  war  mechanism.  The  Jewish  proportion  to 
the  general  population  is  but  three  percent,  yet 
the  number  of  Jews  who  saw  service  is  from  4  to 
5  percent. 

This  total  is  to  be  explained,  to  a  certain  ex¬ 
tent,  in  terms  of  the  large  number  of  Jewish  vol¬ 
unteers  who  did  not  wait  to  be  called  but  entered 
service  before  their  time  arrived.  This  however 
does  not  explain  the  whole  matter.  As  Mr. 
Leavitt  points  out  in  his  brilliant  summary,  the 
draft  system  worked  with  greater  efficiency  in  the 


1 12  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

cities  than  in  the  rural  portions  of  the  country. 
There  the  wide  expanse  of  the  country,  the  laxness 
of  organization,  and  the  inexperience  in  methods 
of  handling  large  matters  militated  against  an  all 
inclusive  working  of  the  draft  system.  In  the 
cities,  however,  where  the  Jews  are  congregated, 
the  draft  machine  worked  more  efficiently,  result¬ 
ing  in  a  greater  contribution  from  the  urban  cen¬ 
ters  than  from  the  rural  portions  of  the  country. 

Secondly,  the  law  which  exempted  large  classes 
did  not  touch  the  Jewish  population.  These  ex¬ 
emptions  were  granted  for  participation  in  indis¬ 
pensable  industries  such  as  agriculture,  mining, 
munition  making,  etc.  The  masses  of  Jews  are 
engaged  in  occupations  which  did  not  come  in 
under  these  exemption  laws.  And  hence  this  situa¬ 
tion  resulted  in  a  disproportionate  number  of 
Jews  in  service  and  a  number  of  exemptions 
smaller  than  that  of  the  non-Jewish  population. 

In  examining  the  Jewish  figures  it  was  ascer¬ 
tained  that  io  percent  of  the  men  were  outside  of 
draft  age.  When  in  addition  to  these  we  take  the 
15,700  Jewish  sailors  and  marines  we  have  a  sum 
total  of  about  40,000  volunteers.  Even  if  we  sub¬ 
tract  a  reasonable  number  of  drafted  men  who 
enlisted,  this  figure  makes  the  proportion  of  vol¬ 
untary  enlistments  a  little  above  the  general  pro¬ 
portion. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  113 

In  taking  up  the  distribution  of  Jews  in  the  vari¬ 
ous  branches  of  the  army,  we  discover  the  fact 
that  in  the  most  arduous  and  difficult  branch,  the 
infantry,  the  proportion  of  Jews  was  almost 
double  the  proportion  of  non-Jews,  while  in  the 
comparatively  sinecure  positions,  as  in  the  quarter¬ 
master’s  department,  they  were  below  the  general 
proportion.  The  infantry  was  26.6%  of  the  en¬ 
tire  army,  yet  of  the  Jewish  records  examined  it 
was  found  that  48%  had  served  in  that  most  diffi¬ 
cult  branch  of  the  service.  The  Quartermaster’s 
Department  is  6.2%  of  the  entire  army;  the  pro¬ 
portion  of  Jews  who  served  there  was  only  5.9%. 
In  the  Medical  Corps,  the  Jews  had  more  than 
their  proportion  largely  due,  of  course,  to  the  un¬ 
usually  large  number  of  Jewish  doctors  through¬ 
out  the  country.  In  the  Signal  and  Aviation 
Corps  their  proportion  was  double,  while  in  the 
Engineering  Corps,  Artillery  and  Cavalry  they 
were  below  the  general  average. 

Out  of  these  114,000,  army  records  examined, 
it  was  discovered  that  the  distribution  of  Jewish 
soldiers  in  the  various  branches  of  service  were  as 
follows : 

24,200  Infantry;  7,642  Artillery;  7,884  Medi¬ 
cal  Corps;  4,558  Signal  and  Aviation;  2,496  En¬ 
gineer  Corps;  1,239  Cavalry;  1,385  Ordnance; 
13,264  Other  Branches. 


1 14  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

The  total  number  of  commissioned  officers  was 
7,929.  Of  these  32  were  colonels,  39  lieutenant- 
colonels,  340  majors,  4,802  lieutenants,  1201  cap¬ 
tains  and  the  remainder  unspecified.  In  the  Navy 
the  total  number  of  Jews  who  attained  ranks  of 
commissioned  officers  was  433.  In  the  marine  ser¬ 
vice,  the  number  of  commissioned  officers  was  59. 

Further  examination  of  the  army  records  dis¬ 
closes  the  fact  that  these  150,000  records  were 
only  the  first  pick.  A  more  intensive  examination 
of  army  records  was  made  and  in  several  cities 
where  this  new  intensive  search  took  place  it 
yielded  50%  new  names.  New  York  City  which 
has  not  been  subjected  to  any  intensive  search  is 
expected  to  yield  another  25,000.  And  this  with 
the  75,000  (50  %  addition  to  the  first  pick)  will 
make  the  total  number  of  Jews  in  service  about  a 
quarter  of  a  million. 

In  the  Quartermaster’s  Department  it  would  be 
expected  that  the  Jew  because  of  his  business 
ability  and  experience  might  be  chosen  beyond  his 
quota;  nevertheless,  the  proportion  of  non-Jews 
surpassed  that  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

The  fact  that  the  Jews  were  disproportionately 
represented  in  the  most  arduous  branches  of  the 
service  is  not  borne  out  simply  by  the  infantry 
statistics.  The  shock  troops  of  the  war  were,  as 
is  well-known,  the  marine  corps.  They  saw  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  115 

heaviest  fighting  and  distinguished  themselves  as 
a  group  above  the  regular  army  men.  Of  the 
65,000  men  who  constituted  the  Marine  Corps 
as  far  as  it  could  be  ascertained  2,500  were 
Jews,  a  contribution  beyond  their  3%  quota. 

One  of  the  most  thrilling  episodes  of  the  war 
was  the  adventure  of  the  Lost  Battalion.  This 
group  of  men  consisted  of  about  40%  Russian  and 
Polish  Jews  from  the  East  Side  of  New  York. 
Lost  and  cut  off  from  communication  for  three 
days,  they  battled  valiantly  on  until  reinforce¬ 
ments  came  to  the  rescue  and  drove  off  the  enemy. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Douglas  Campbell  speak¬ 
ing  of  this  heroic  group  at  the  New  York  Educa¬ 
tional  Alliance,  April  8,  1919,  declared,  “The 
Jewdsh  boys  of  the  77th  Division  were  the  best 
soldiers  on  earth.  They  have  participated  in  the 
greatest  battles  and  emerged  sound.  The  77th 
Division  of  which  40%  were  Jews,  was  the  only 
division  to  reach  the  Meuse,  after  having  pene¬ 
trated  into  the  German  lines  further  than  any 
other  division.” 

Major  General  Clarence  Edwards,  of  the  26th 
Division,  testifying  to  the  calibre  of  his  Jewish 
soldiers,  declared,  “I  wartf:  to  tell  you  that  the 
Jews  made  an  enviable  record.  I  remember  in¬ 
stances  where  formerly  intolerant  Gentiles  asked 


n6  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

that  Jews  be  made  officers  in  order  that  they  might 
be  the  leaders.” 

The  chorus  of  praise  raised  by  officers  who 
had  Jews  under  their  direction  is  also  echoed  by 
Captain  Harrigan  of  the  77th  Division.  “One 
particular  thing,”  he  declared,  “which  was  proven 
was  that  there  is  no  better  soldier  than  the  Jewish 
boy.  About  40%  of  the  division  were  Jews.  The 
Jew  is  essentially  keen  and  determined  to  make 
good.  The  boys  of  the  77th  fought  just  that  way. 
They  would  go  after  a  concealed  German  battery 
as  they  would  after  a  business  difficulty,  and  they 
would  get  it.” 

Colonel  Whitlesey  of  the  Lost  Battalion,  who 
led  his  group  throughout  the  adventure  and  whose 
contact  with  the  Russian-Jewish  soldier  was  per¬ 
haps  closer  than  that  of  any  other  American  offi¬ 
cer,  was  unstinting  in  his  praise.  “We  officers,” 
he  declared,  “who  served  with  the  77th  have  had 
an  opportunity  to  know  many  Jewish  soldiers  and 
have  come  to  think  of  them  with  admiration. 
Some  of  them  stand  out  so  unforgettably  in  the 
memory  that  it  is  impossible  to  forget  them. 
There  was  one  man  for  example  who  seemed  the 
worst  possible  soldier  material,  thick  set,  stolid 
looking,  extremely  alien  in  face  and  speech,  yet  on 
that  day  when  we  were  holding  the  bank  of  the 
Vesle  he  performed  feats  as  a  runner  that  to  my 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  117 

mind  place  him  in  the  front  rank.  For  communi¬ 
cation  it  was  necessary  to  send  a  runner  up  and 
down  the  hill,  through  thick  underbrush  in  a  ter¬ 
rain  that  would  have  been  difficult  enough  under 
ordinary  circumstances.  Under  fire  this  became 
almost  impossible,  yet  this  boy  volunteered  four 
different  times  and  using  reserves  of  wit  and  cun¬ 
ning,  of  physical  pluck  and  nervous  endurance  that 
no  one  would  have  supposed  him  to  possess,  made 
the  trip  successfully  every  time.” 

A  total  of  600  official  citations  for  gallantry 
and  heroism  in  action  was  received  by  Jewish 
members  of  the  service.  Three  of  these  received 
the  Congressional  medal  of  honor.  One  of 
them,  Sergeant  Sydney  G.  Gompertz,  achieved 
the  distinction  by  virtue  of  a  most  unprecedented 
act  against  the  enemy.  Dispatched  with  two  other 
soldiers  to  capture  an  enemy  machine  gun,  he  saw 
his  companions  killed  by  a  bursting  shell.  He  con¬ 
tinued  on,  however,  alone,  in  the  face  of  an  in¬ 
creasing  fusilade,  jumped  into  the  nest  and  silenced 
the  gun.  Single-handed  he  captured  nine  of  the 
crew  who  had  been  working  the  gun. 

Benjamin  Kaufman,  separated  from  his  pla¬ 
toon,  had  his  right  hand  shattered  by  a  machine 
gun  bullet.  The  report  proceeds — “Without  hes¬ 
itation  he  advanced  on  the  German  line,  throwing 
grenades  with  his  left  hand  and  charging  with  an 


n8  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

empty  pistol.  He  scattered  the  machine  gun 
crew,  and  brought  the  gun  and  one  prisoner  back 
with  him  to  the  first  aid  station.” 

Another  recipient  of  the  Congressional  medal 
was  Jacob  L.  Sawelson  who  received  it  for  his  son, 
William  Sawelson  who  was  killed  by  machine  gun 
fire.  On  his  own  initiative,  in  the  face  of  fierce 
fire,  Sawelson  left  his  shelter  to  bring  water  to  a 
wounded  soldier.  His  gallant  attempt  cost  him 
his  life,  but  nevertheless,  it  did  not  go  unrewarded. 

In  the  attempt  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  the 
various  types  of  heroism  displayed  by  Jewish 
soldiers  on  the  battlefield,  Dr.  Leavitt  took  at 
random  200  citations  from  the  Jewish  group  and 
a  similar  number  of  citations  from  the  non-Jewish 
group.  He  classified  them  into  various  categories, 
each  category  necessitating  the  possession  of  cer¬ 
tain  specific  qualities.  The  result  bore  out  gen¬ 
eral  expectations  based  on  a  knowledge  of  Jewish 
character.  In  dangerous  situations  where  intelli¬ 
gence  and  resourcefulness  was  the  prime  character 
necessary,  the  Jew  excelled  24  to  14.  Similarly, 
where  sensitiveness  to  human  suffering  was  a 
necessary  characteristic,  as  for  instance  in  the 
dragging  a  wounded  comrade  from  a  zone  of  dan¬ 
ger,  the  Jews  excelled  also  65  to  45.  On  the  other 
hand,  Jewish  citations  were  smaller  in  number 
than  non-Jewish  citations  in  situations  where  sheer 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  119 

bull  courage  and  dare  deviltry  was  involved,  where 
blindly  rushing  ahead  without  realizing  the  cost 
was  necessary.  There  was  a  like  number,  how¬ 
ever,  in  places  where  stubborn  devotion  to  duty 
and  tenacity  of  purpose  was  necessary. 

A  disproportionate  number  of  Jews  lost  their 
lives  in  the  war.  The  total  number  of  Jewish 
casualties  was  3,500,  which  was  5%  of  the  entire 
death  roll.  The  number  of  wounded  is  estimated 
at  12,000,  making  the  total  of  Jews  who  died  or 
suffered  in  the  late  war  approximately  15,000  to 
16,000. 


CHAPTER  VII 


IN  AMERICAN  ECONOMIC  LIFE 

The  early  Immigrants  and  their  descendants, 
despite  their  numerically  insignificant  proportion, 
exercised  considerable  influence  upon  the  upbuild¬ 
ing  of  the  colonies.  They  numbered  only  several 
thousand,  yet  they  were  able  to  play  an  important 
role  in  the  foundation  of  the  international  trade. 
Towards  the  middle  of  the  last  century  a  new 
migration  of  Jews  came.  The  later  arrivals  were 
of  German  origin.  Starting  upon  the  lowest  rungs 
of  the  economic  ladder,  they  were  able  to  raise 
themselves  within  two  generations  upon  a  comfort¬ 
able  economic  and  social  plane. 

The  older  Spanish  Jews  were  submerged  by  the 
new  German  Jewish  immigration  and  now  there 
are  but  few  traces  left  of  the  earliest  Jewish  set¬ 
tlers  in  America.  The  newcomers  started  as 
peddlers  and  shopkeepers  in  contradistinction  to 
the  Sephardic  Jews  who  had  carried  on  an  exten¬ 
sive  import  and  export  trade.  From  these  small 
shops  started  by  German  Jews  there  arose  that 
vast  chain  of  department  stores  which  now  dot 

120 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  12  i 

the  country.  The  names  of  Straus,  Altman, 
Gimbel,  Stern  and  Bloomingdale  are  evidence  of 
the  rise  of  obscure  Jewish  merchants  to  a  place  of 
eminence  in  the  economic  world.  The  Jew,  trained 
for  centuries  in  the  art  of  combination,  developed 
the  department  store  to  its  present  extent.  By 
placing  all  the  necessary  commodities  under  one 
roof  he  saved  time  and  energy  to  the  consuming 
public. 

The  descendants  of  these  Sephardic  and  Ger¬ 
man  Jews  are  engaged  largely  in  mercantile  pur¬ 
suits.  They  are  the  stockbrokers,  the  bankers, 
the  money  lenders,  and  up  to  the  Russian  influx, 
they  dominated  the  clothing  trade.  It  is  rare  in¬ 
deed  that  one  finds  a  native  Jew  below  the  rank 
of  storekeeper  or  salesman.  From  this  group 
there  have  come  the  great  Jewish  families  of 
America,  the  Schiffs,  the  Warburgs,  the  Loebs, 
the  Strauses,  etc. 

While  this  group  is  dominant  in  the  department 
store  world,  in  the  realm  of  finance  it  plays  but  a 
minor  role.  The  American  financial  world  is  cen¬ 
tered  in  large  non-Jewish  houses  like  Morgan,  the 
National  City  Bank,  the  Chase  National  and 
other  institutions  of  a  similar  nature  which  have 
very  few,  if  any,  Jewish  affiliations.  One  must  see 
a  convention  of  American  bankers  to  realize  how 
amazingly  small  is  the  part  played  by  the  Jew  in 


122  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

American  finance  in  contrast  with  that  of  his 
European  brethren.  The  largest  Jewish  house  is 
Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co.  There  are  others,  like  the 
Seligmans  and  the  Speyers,  but  in  the  sum  total 
of  American  finance  they  are  only  of  lesser  im¬ 
portance.  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Co.  has  an  extensive  in¬ 
terest  in  the  Harriman  railway  system;  in  fact,  at 
a  critical  hour,  it  was  this  house  that  came  to  its 
rescue. 

On  the  Stock  Exchange  the  Jews  are  no  more 
than  about  ten  percent,  though  they  are  heavy  in¬ 
vestors.  A  curious  fact  has  been  noted, — that 
Jewish  investors  prefer  dealings  with  non-Jewish 
brokers,  and  non-Jewish  investors  prefer  to  have 
their  dealings  with  Jewish  houses.  Among  the 
beef  barons  one  finds  Sulzberger,  Morris  and 
Schwarzchild,  all  of  whom,  however,  are  insigni¬ 
ficant  besides  the  gigantic  combination  of  Armour 
and  Swift.  Smelting  and  the  Colorado  mines  are 
dominated  by  Jews;  it  is  from  this  source  that  the 
Guggenheim  family  has  amassed  most  of  its 
wealth. 

After  the  German-Jewish  element  had  achieved 
a  state  of  economic  security,  a  new  migration  of 
Jews  from  Eastern  Europe  set  in.-  They  came  in 
a  more  impoverished  state  than  their  predecessors, 
who  had  commenced  life  as  peddlers,  hucksters 
and  old  clothes  men.  There  was,  however,  one  out- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  123 

standing  difference.  In  the  newer  stratum  of  im¬ 
migrants  one  found  a  majority  of  manual  workers 
and  laborers  while  the  earlier  group  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  middlemen.  According  to  the 
compilation  of  statistics  published  by  the  Com¬ 
missioner  General  of  Immigration  it  was  found 
that  of  330,573  Jews  who  were  admitted  during 
1901-1906  no  less  than  about  two-thirds  were  in¬ 
dustrial  workers.  Every  category  of  manual  labor 
found  representation  in  the  new  flow.  The  largest 
percentage  was  engaged  in  the  garment  industry. 
There  were  78,502  tailors,  13,123  shoe  makers, 
22,875  carpenters  and  cabinet  makers,  4,882 
blacksmiths,  4,401  tinners,  etc. 

The  reason  for  the  Jewish  preponderance  in  the 
cloth  industry  is  not  far  to  seek.  Tailoring  is  a 
sedentary  pursuit  and  therefore  has  an  appeal  to 
the  Jew  who  is  unfit  for  the  heaviest  kind  of  man¬ 
ual  labor.  Throughout  the  centuries  tailoring 
has  been  a  Jewish  trade  and  the  participation  of 
the  Jew  in  the  American  clothing  business  is  in 
conformity  with  a  long  established  tradition. 
Wherever  Russian  Jews  are  settled  one  comes 
across  the  ubiquitous  tailor.  Coming  to  America 
they  found  the  trade  in  the  hands  of  the  German- 
Jewish  element.  A  rivalry  soon  developed;  but 
by  virtue  of  his  staying  power,  the  Russian  Jew 
triumphed  and  now  he  is  undisputed  master.  All 


124  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Americans  go  about  in  Jew’s  clothing.  The  vast 
majority  of  the  workers  are  Jews  and  practically 
all  manufacturers  are  members  of  the  race. 

The  revolution  in  the  clothing  industry  which 
enabled  the  Jews  to  raise  it  to  a  place  of  promi¬ 
nence  among  the  national  industries  is  an  interest¬ 
ing  bit  of  economic  history.  In  1880,  when  the 
Russo-Jewish  influx  began,  the  investment  in  the 
industry  was  $60,000,000.  Within  a  span  of 
thirty  years  the  investment  had  increased  about 
1,500%.  This,  as  a  deputy  in  the  German 
Reichstag  once  declared,  was  not  due  so  much  to 
the  McKinley  and  Dingley  tariff  bill  as  to  the  in¬ 
telligence  and  industry  of  the  Russian  Jew. 

The  United  States  Industrial  Commission,  in¬ 
vestigating  the  status  of  the  needle  industries,  re¬ 
marks  that  this  successful  revolution  is  to  be  at¬ 
tributed  to  the  willingness  of  the  Russian  Jew  “to 
change  the  mode  of  production  by  using  the  sew¬ 
ing  machine  and  the  division  of  labor  against 
which  the  native  tailor  showed  a  decided  aver¬ 
sion.”  The  basic  idea  of  the  factory  system,  spe¬ 
cialization  and  division  of  labor  was  taken  up  by 
the  Jew  at  his  advent  in  the  industry  and  by  the 
utilization  of  this  idea  he  transformed  completely 
the  entire  industry  and  raised  it  to  its  present 
status. 

The  workingmen  in  the  men’s  clothing  industry 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  125 

are  organized  in  the  Amalgamated  Clothing 
Workers  of  America,  the  presiding  genius  of 
which  is  Sidney  Hillman.  At  the  inception  of  the 
union  sweating  conditions  were  widely  prevalent, 
but  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  these  immigrant 
Jews  completely  standardized  the  industry,  elimi¬ 
nated  the  intolerable  conditions  and  enabled  the 
workers  to  realize  their  ideal  of  an  American 
standard  of  living.  Now  they  rank  among  the 
best  paid  workers  in  America.  Over  nine  hundred 
million  dollars  is  invested  in  the  clothing  business, 
and  great  stretches  of  the  business  section  of  New 
York  are  occupied  by  Jewish  clothiers.  In  Roch¬ 
ester,  Cleveland,  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  other 
large  cities  where  the  Amalgamated  is  repre¬ 
sented,  a  large  percentage  of  the  Russian  Jews 
there  are  also  occupied  in  the  same  branch  of 
labor.  The  total  membership  of  the  Union  is 
over  180,000. 

Allied  to  the  clothing  industry  are  phases  of 
economic  life  in  which  the  Jews  play  a  dominating 
role.  The  manufacture  of  all  kinds  of  women’s 
apparel,  skirts,  cloaks,  the  preparing  of  furs,  etc., 
are  in  Jewish  hands,  as  is  also  the  means  of  their 
distribution  to  the  general  public.  Here,  too,  a 
large  union  has  been  organized,  the  International 
Ladies’  Garment  Workers,  affiliated  with  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor.  Its  membership 


126  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

is  largely  Jewish  and  it  has  attained  a  standard  of 
trade  conditions  equal  to  that  of  the  Amalga¬ 
mated.  The  total  number  of  its  adherents  is 
about  140,000. 

These  great  Jewish  trade  unions  have  de¬ 
veloped  a  more  extensive  program  of  activity  than 
that  which  characterizes  the  other  workingmen’s 
unions.  Their  members  are  organized  not  only 
for  economic  purposes,  but  for  cultural  and  other 
ends.  The  elimination  of  the  sweatshop  and  the 
attainment  of  the  American  standard  of  living  has 
been  coupled  with  the  motto  of  general  better¬ 
ment.  Night  schools  are  conducted  where  the 
Jewish  worker  is  taught  history,  science,  civics  and 
English  by  competent  professors,  who  during  the 
day  teach  in  nearby  universities.  The  Amalga¬ 
mated  has  opened  up  a  bank  for  its  members  in 
order  to  encourage  thrift.  Health  centres  where 
medical  and  dental  treatment  are  given  to  mem¬ 
bers  at  a  nominal  fee  have  also  been  established, 
while  for  the  summer  the  International  Ladies’ 
Garment  Workers  Union  conducts  a  large  sum¬ 
mer  resort,  the  Unity  House,  where  its  members 
may  rest  from  the  work  of  the  past  year.  Their 
magazines  contain  more  than  mere  items  about 
trade  union  activities,  they  also  contain  articles 
on  world  politics,  literature,  and  kindred  subjects 
of  cultural  value.  In  short,  the  Jewish  unions 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  127 

have  developed  their  organization  from  the  level 
of  a  mere  economic  unit,  into  a  medium  for  the 
raising  of  the  general  cultural  condition  of  its 
members  and  for  the  diffusion  of  learning  among 
the  laboring  classes. 

It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  think  that  all  Rus¬ 
sian  Jews  are  engaged  in  the  clothing  trade. 
Other  industries  also  possess  their  Jewish  quota. 
Jews  are  found  in  the  furniture  making  and  house 
decoration  industry.  They  are  also  expert  in 
what  may  be  called  the  gentler  manufactures ;  they 
are  jewelers,  watchmakers  and  producers  of  elec¬ 
trical  appliances.  Twenty-five  percent  of  the  sil¬ 
versmiths  of  America  are  Jews.  With  the  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  joining  unions  and  engaging  in  manual 
labor  open  to  him,  there  has  been  noticeable  an 
increasing  trend  of  Jews  to  painting,  bricklaying, 
tanning  and  building  industries. 

The  purchase  of  real  estate  and  the  building  of 
new  houses  has  become  a  Jewish  business  in  New 
York,  and  in  the  other  large  cities  where  Jews  are 
represented  in  appreciable  numbers.  Whole 
stretches  of  hitherto  uninhabited  territory,  like 
the  Bronx,  Borough  Park  and  Bensonhurst  in 
New  York  City,  Douglas  Park  section  in  Chicago 
and  similar  sections  in  the  other  cities  have  been 
converted  into  veritable  cities,  where  block  after 
block  of  fine  suburban  residences  house  the  Jewish 


128  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

population.  Land  values  within  ten  years  have 
risen  to  an  extent  undreamed  of.  Barren  and  de¬ 
serted  spots  have  been  turned  into  fine  residential 
sections  with  all  the  latest  advantages  of  a  modern 
community.  The  tenement  sections  into  which 
they  migrated  several  decades  earlier  have  been 
to  a  certain  extent  rebuilt;  numbers  of  old  private 
houses  and  slum  dwellings  have  been  converted 
into  up-to-date  double  decker  apartments. 

A  perusal  of  the  real  estate  columns  of  the 
daily  newspapers  bring  out  the  fact  that  the  over¬ 
whelming  majority  of  buyers  of  real  estate  are 
German  and  Russian  Jews.  The  vast  heterogene¬ 
ous  population  of  New  York  City  are  sheltered 
in  Jewish  houses.  The  Real  Estate  Record  and 
Guide  might  be  mistaken  for  a  Jewish  directory 
of  the  city. 

These  Jewish  operators  do  not  confine  them¬ 
selves  to  the  East  side,  but  extend  their  activities 
to  all  parts  of  the  Greater  City  and  its  environs. 
There  is  more  than  an  accidental  connection  be¬ 
tween  the  tremendous  rise  of  real  estate  values 
in  New  York  City  since  the  90’s  and  the  expansion 
of  the  Jewish  community  in  the  metropolis.  In 
critical  times,  however,  more  than  one  fortune 
went  with  greater  rapidity  than  it  came.  Never¬ 
theless,  as  a  result  of  this  unparalleled  expansion, 
a  large  number  of  erstwhile  Jewish  pushcart  ped- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  129 

dlers  and  storekeepers  marched  triumphantly 
through  the  portals  of  homes  in  New  York’s 
most  exclusive  residential  section. 

The  Jews  have  practically  rebuilt  the  most  im¬ 
portant  parts  of  the  city.  Tremendous  office 
buildings  have  replaced  the  decaying  old  homes 
of  the  Colonial  aristocracy;  the  apartment  houses 
on  the  west  side  and  the  magnificent  hotels  in  the 
theatrical  section  have  arisen  as  the  result  of  the 
Jewish  influx  in  the  building  industry.  The  peo¬ 
ple  that  forty  centuries  ago  built  Pithom  and 
Rameses  and  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  symbols  of  a 
vanished  glory  and  greatness,  are  still  actively 
building;  this  time  they  are  erecting  the  massive 
monuments  of  a  20th  century  industrial  and 
mechanical  civilization. 

Pre-eminent  among  these  refugees  from  Old 
World  oppression  who  have  transformed  the  face 
of  the  world’s  metropolis  is  Louis  J.  Horowitz, 
the  directing  genius  behind  the  Thompson-Star- 
rett  Company,  which  is  perhaps  the  largest  builder 
of  skyscrapers  in  the  world.  At  the  age  of  seven¬ 
teen  he  arrived  as  an  immigrant  boy  from  Poland. 
Starting  his  American  life  at  the  munificent  salary 
of  three  dollars  a  week,  this  immigrant  youth  com¬ 
menced  one  of  the  most  amazing  careers  in  con¬ 
temporary  America.  He  entered  the  real  estate 
business,  and  after  serving  in  the  capacity  of  as- 


130  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

sistant  to  Theodore  Starrett  for  six  years,  he  be¬ 
came  the  president  and  general  manager  of  the 
concern. 

Perhaps  the  most  notable  of  the  buildings 
erected  by  his  guiding  mind  is  the  Equitable  Build¬ 
ing.  It  is  the  largest  office  building  in  the  world, 
517  feet  above  the  street  level,  42  stories  high, 
equipped  with  sixty-three  elevators  and  contain¬ 
ing  2,300  offices.  Another  achievement  is  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  powder  plant  at  Nitro,  West  Vir¬ 
ginia  during  the  war.  In  eight  months  he  put  up 
three  thousand  buildings  and  constructed  a  verit¬ 
able  city  at  a  cost  of  $65,000,000. 

Horowitz  is  responsible  also  for  the  erection 
of  the  Woolworth  Building,  the  tallest  building 
in  the  world,  the  New  York  Municipal  Building, 
the  McAlpin  and  Claridge  Hotels,  the  Gimbel 
Brothers  department  Store,  the  Continental  and 
Commercial  National  Bank  buildings  of  Chicago, 
the  Metropolis  Bank  building  of  San  Francisco, 
the  Union  Bank  Building  of  Winnipeg,  Canada, 
the  Union  Station  of  Washington,  D.  C.  and  the 
Soo  Line  Terminal  Elevator  of  Minneapolis, 
Minn. 

Not  all  of  the  immigrants  have  remained  in  the 
cities.  One  of  the  most  welcome  signs  of  the 
times  has  been  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  agricul¬ 
ture.  For  a  number  of  centuries  the  Jew  was  con- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  131 

fined  to  a  Ghetto  and  forbidden  to  cultivate  the 
soil,  and  up  to  a  few  years  ago,  this  state  of 
affairs  prevailed  in  Eastern  Europe.  Despite  the 
imposition  of  these  hostile  edicts,  the  love  of  the 
Jew  for  the  open  did  not  completely  vanish.  In 
America  there  has  been  a  response  to  freer  condi¬ 
tions  and  greater  opportunity.  In  Europe,  Ar¬ 
gentine  and. Palestine  also,  the  return  of  the  Jew 
to  agriculture  has  been  facilitated;  in  fact,  the 
back  to  the  soil  movement  among  the  Jews  is 
world  wide.  We  are  witnessing  the  re-creation 
of  an  agricultural  class. 

In  New  England  there  are  many  Jewish  dairy 
farmers.  In  Minnesota,  Oregon,  Arkansas  and 
Colorado  also  one  finds  Jewish  farmers.  There 
are  several  Jewish  agricultural  communities  like 
Woodbine,  New  Jersey,  and  Carmel,  New  Jersey, 
where  Jewish  husbandmen  are  comparatively 
numerous.  Deserted  homesteads  have  been  taken 
up  by  Jews  and  converted  into  profitable  ventures, 
while  government  lands  also  have  their  quota  of 
Jewish  settlers. 

At  Doylestown,  Pa.,  there  is  the  National  Farm 
School  founded  by  the  late  Rabbi  Joseph  Kraus- 
kopf.  This  institution  teaches  scientific  agricul¬ 
ture  to  young  men.  The  course  is  of  four  years’ 
duration  and  tuition  is  free.  At  Woodbine,  N.  J., 
there  is  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  School  which  gives 


132  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

a  similar  course  of  instruction  to  aspiring  agri¬ 
culturalists.  The  problem  of  keeping  the  young 
people  on  the  farm  is  being  met  by  lectures  in  the 
winter  and  by  the  granting  of  scholarships  which 
enable  the  children  of  farmers  to  attend  courses 
in  the  State  Agricultural  Colleges.  A  publication, 
the  Jewish  Farmer,  is  also  printed.  By  this  means 
there  is  spread  among  the  Jewish  farming  popula¬ 
tion  the  latest  knowledge  concerning  farming 
methods  and  agricultural  appliances.  At  present, 
it  is  estimated  100,000  Jews  are  engaged  in  agri¬ 
culture  and  the  total  value  of  farm  land  owned 
by  them  is  believed  to  be  in  the  vicinity  of 
$100,000,000. 

This  redistribution  of  the  Jewish  population 
has  been  done  in  a  systematic  and  concerted 
fashion.  A  large  portion  of  this  activity  has  been 
done  by  the  Jewish  Agricultural  and  Industrial 
Aid  Society.  This  organization,  subsidized  by  the 
Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  began  its  activities  as  soon 
as  the  Russo-Jewish  migration  had  begun  to  be 
felt  in  the  congested  cities.  Its  activity  is  increas¬ 
ing  every  year.  Its  purposes  were : 

The  encouragement  of  agriculture  and  the  re¬ 
moval  of  persons  from  congested  sections  of  the 
city  to  agricultural  and  industrial  districts  with 
provision  for  their  temporary  support. 

Loans  to  mechanics,  artisans  and  tradesmen  to 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  133 

enable  them  to  secure  larger  earnings  and  accumu¬ 
late  savings  for  homes. 

The  removal  of  industries  from  congested  sec¬ 
tions  to  other  districts  where  employees  may  con¬ 
tinue  to  labor  and  acquire  individual  homes. 

Encouragement  of  cooperative  creameries,  fac¬ 
tories  and  storage  houses  for  canning  and  preserv¬ 
ing  food. 

In  these  Jewish  agricultural  schools  hundreds 
of  young  men  were  trained  for  agricultural  ac¬ 
tivity.  A  large  number  occupy  prominent  posi¬ 
tions  in  the  Federal  and  State  Agricultural  ser¬ 
vice.  The  Farm  Labor  Bureau  operated  by  the 
Society  has  placed,  since  its  inception,  thousands 
of  young  men  upon  farms. 

Among  those  trained  in  Jewish  agricultural  in¬ 
stitutions  who  have  attained  prominence  in  their 
particular  field  are  Jacob  G.  Lipman,  Professor 
of  Soil  Chemistry  in  New  Jersey  Agricultural  Col¬ 
lege  and  Director  of  State  Experiment  Station, 
who  is  a  product  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  School; 
his  brother  C.  B.  Lipman,  Associate  Professor  of 
Soil  Chemistry  at  the  University  of  California; 
M.  E.  Jaffa,  another  graduate  of  the  Baron  de 
Hirsch  School,  Nutrition  Expert  of  the  California 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station;  Jacob  Tauben- 
haus,  graduate  of  the  National  Farm  School, 
who  is  Assistant  Professor  of  Plant  Pathology  at 


134  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

the  Delaware  Agricultural  College;  Maurice 
Mitzman,  graduate  of  the  National  Farm  School, 
Chief  Entomologist  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of 
Agriculture  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 

Some  of  the  outstanding  figures  in  the  Agricul¬ 
tural  life  of  America  have  been  Jews.  David 
Lubin,  born  in  Poland  in  1849,  came  to  America 
at  an  early  age.  His  education  had  been  very 
limited,  and  upon  arrival  here,  he  worked  in  a 
jewelry  factory  in  Attleboro,  Mass.  Later  he 
drifted  to  California  where  he  started  a  dry  goods 
business.  Here  he  sold  large  numbers  of  overalls 
to  farmers.  A  keen  interest  in  their  problems  and 
life  awakened  in  him  and  soon  he  turned  to  fruit 
growing.  While  engaged  in  this  occupation  there 
occurred  to  him  a  great  idea,  towards  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  which  he  dedicated  his  life.  What  im¬ 
pressed  him  most  was  the  need  of  creating  an 
International  Institute  of  Agriculture,  which  could 
serve  as  a  clearing  house  for  information  and 
knowledge  concerning  the  state  of  crops  through¬ 
out  the  world.  He  also  began  at  this  time  studies 
in  the  realm  of  plant  pathology.  He  travelled 
throughout  the  world  in  behalf  of  his  scheme. 
The  King  of  Italy  became  interested  in  the  idea, 
donated  a  building  and  an  annual  income  of  $60,- 
000.  At  the  first  gathering  about  forty  nations 
were  represented;  later  no  less  than  fifty-three 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  135 

sent  their  delegates.  At  the  Congress  of  1913 
Lubin  was  presented  with  a  silver  cup  as  the  orig¬ 
inator  of  the  idea. 

Lubin,  however,  did  not  confine  himself  simply 
to  this  part  of  his  life  work.  The  amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  the  American  farmer  made  an 
irresistible  appeal  to  him.  He  was  responsible 
for  the  creation  of  the  rural  credit  scheme  and 
after  ceaseless  agitation  had  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  this  epoch-making  enactment  pass  through 
Congress.  He  brought  about  the  passage  of  a 
measure  for  increasing  parcel  post  service  for  the 
benefit  of  the  farmer.  This  resulted  in  the  pro¬ 
moting  of  direct  selling  and  buying  of  farm  prod¬ 
uce  through  the  mails.  He  extended  his  activity 
to  farmers’  co-operatives  and  also  to  oceanic  ship¬ 
ping.  He  introduced  a  national  marketing  pro¬ 
posal  on  the  lines  of  the  German  Landwirtschaft. 

The  successor  of  Lubin  as  a  great  constructive 
factor  in  American  Agriculture  is  Aaron  Sapiro 
(born  in  San  Francisco,  1884).  It  is  only  within 
the  last  few  years  that  Sapiro  has  set  himself  to 
organizing  the  farmers  of  the  country  for  the  im¬ 
provement  of  their  economic  conditions,  yet  in 
that  short  period  he  has  achieved  a  notable  suc¬ 
cess.  He  has  enrolled  under  his  banner  groups  of 
farmers,  the  total  membership  of  which  is  in  the 
vicinity  of  half  a  million.  Farmers  in  every  state 


136  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

of  the  Union  have  in  him  their  champion,  raisers 
of  every  conceivable  product  from  beans  to 
onions,  from  potatoes  to  prunes. 

Sapiro  is  the  evangelist  of  the  new  gospel  of 
co-operative  marketing.  In  his  role  of  counselor 
and  advisor  to  three  score  farmers1  organizations, 
he  has  effected  changes  in  the  laws  of  seventeen 
states  in  order  to  facilitate  the  creation  of  easier 
methods  of  marketing. 

“To  his  half-million  followers”,  writes  Merle 
Crowell  in  the  American  Magazine  for  May, 
1922,  “Sapiro  is  a  Moses  leading  them  from  the 
wilderness  to  the  Promised  Land.  His  six  funda¬ 
mental  principles  of  successful  co-operation  are 
today  being  quoted  so  generally  that  at  least  half 
of  their  protagonists  have  forgotten  who  worked 
them  out  in  the  first  place.” 

Sapiro,  who  is  of  Russian  Jewish  parentage  and 
an  ex-rabbinical  student,  was  appointed  counsel  to 
the  State  Market  Commission  in  1915.  He 
studied  the  records  of  market  activity  and  then 
formulated  a  model  plan  to  eliminate  waste  and 
inefficiency.  Later  on  he  became  the  advisor  of 
one  group  of  farmers  to  whom  he  expounded  his 
gospel;  and  soon  egg  producers,  cotton  growers, 
tobacco  raisers  and  a  host  of  farmers  were  or¬ 
ganized  under  his  tutelage.  At  present  his  ac- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  137 

tivities  are  beginning  to  embrace  the  farmers  of 
the  Dominion  of  Canada. 

“A  typical  scene  was  enacted  a  few  months  ago 
in  Abilene,  Texas,”  writes  Merle  Crowell  in  the 
above  mentioned  article.  “Twenty-five  hundred 
farmers  followed  Sapiro  for  more  than  a  mile 
through  the  streets,  trying  to  find  a  meeting  place 
big  enough  to  hold  them.  Then  arrangements 
were  finally  made  to  use  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
the  biggest  building  in  town.  The  crowd  rushed 
pell-mell  for  several  blocks,  so  anxious  was  every 
one  to  get  a  seat.  Once  the  farmers  were  jammed 
into  the  church,  they  remained  there  to  the  last 
man,  while  Sapiro  was  expounding  his  gospel  of 
co-operation.” 

American  life  completely  transforms  these 
homeless  wanderers.  The  improvident  American 
born  Jew  is  very  rare.  Only  two  percent  of  the 
applicants  for  Jewish  charity  were  born  in  the 
United  States.  The  vast  majority  of  the  Jewish 
dependents  come  from  the  diseased  and  defective 
classes,  from  among  the  widows  with  small  chil¬ 
dren,  the  aged  and  the  infirm.  To  meet  this  there 
has  arisen  a  tremendous  system  of  philanthropic 
institutions  which  have  no  parallel  among  the 
other  immigrant  groups.  The  Jews  of  New  York 
City  alone  spend  $7,000,000  a  year  on  charity. 
The  able  bodied  require  assistance  only  during 


138  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

commercial  and  industrial  crises.  One  great  ad¬ 
vantage  belongs  to  the  Jew,  he  is  a  natural  born 
abstainer  from  alcoholic  excesses,  whereas  count¬ 
less  thousands  of  non-Jews  are  thrown  into  the 
pauper  class  by  drink.  The  Jew  remains  immune 
from  its  ravages.  It  has  been  estimated  that  25% 
or  more  of  the  non-Jewish  applicants  for  relief 
owe  their  condition  to  alcoholism.  Dr.  Fishberg, 
the  eminent  authority  on  Jewish  pathology,  states 
that  among  the  thousands  of  Jewish  needy  he  has 
met  less  than  a  half  dozen  who  were  pauperized 
by  the  use  of  alcohol. 

The  comparative  success  of  the  Jew  and  his 
powers  of  recuperation  can  be  traced  to  his  free¬ 
dom  from  alcoholic  excesses.  His  blood  has  not 
been  poisoned  by  drink  and  hence  he  retains  pos¬ 
session  of  his  faculties.  He  is  the  world’s  leading 
example  of  sobriety  and  of  its  value  in  economic 
life.  The  Jews  approach  the  American  standard 
of  living  with  perhaps  greater  rapidity  than  any 
other  immigrant  group.  The  Ghetto  is  only  a 
sieve,  through  which  the  more  competent  pass, 
leaving  behind  a  residue  that  must  still  toil  for 
economic  security.  But  even  in  the  Ghetto  the 
appendages  of  culture  are  visible.  Music  teachers 
are  without  number,  the  libraries  are  crowded  at 
all  hours  of  the  day.  Even  in  the  very  poor  homes 
one  sees  pianos  and  bookshelves.  After  a  few 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  139 

years,  the  Jew  of  the  Ghetto  removes  from  the 
slums,  but  if  he  must  remain,  he  completely  re¬ 
models  them  in  conformity  with  more  desirable 
tastes.  All  this  is  due  to  his  thrift  and  sobriety. 
Even  before  prohibition  the  saloons  vanished  in 
those  localities  where  the  Jews  made  their  homes. 
This  being  the  case,  the  Jew  has  never  sunk  to  the 
low  level  of  the  non-Jewish  European  and  Amer¬ 
ican  slum  population  with  its  appalling  misery,  re¬ 
sulting  from  drink,  hereditary  vice,  shiftlessness 
and  degradation. 

The  concentration  of  the  Jews  in  certain  lines 
of  industry  does  not  remain  after  the  first  genera¬ 
tion.  It  is  rare  indeed  that  one  finds  the  son  fol¬ 
lowing  the  trade  of  the  father.  The  situation  of 
the  Jew  becomes  normalized;  there  is  a  general 
spreading  out  into  all  the  lines  of  economic  en¬ 
deavor.  The  young  Jew  is  a  most  sedulous  at¬ 
tendant  at  the  high  schools  and  night  schools.  In 
response  to  the  urge  of  the  Jewish  youth  of  the 
lower  economic  strata,  a  unique  system  of  pre¬ 
paratory  schools  has  been  opened  to  enable  these 
clerks,  stenographers  and  workingmen  to  pass  the 
requirements  of  the  State  Board  of  Regents. 
Some  of  these  schools  are  even  worked  on  a  co¬ 
operative  basis  so  that  none  may  receive  an  iota 
of  profit  out  of  their  needs. 

The  Civil  Service,  Federal,  State  and  Muni- 


140  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

cipal,  have  claimed  a  large  number  of  Jews  of  the 
second  generation.  Public  School  teaching,  sten¬ 
ography,  and  bookkeeping  are  the  favorite  pur¬ 
suits  of  the  young  Jewesses,  while  salesmanship 
has  exerted  its  natural  appeal  to  the  young  Ameri¬ 
can  born  Jew.  Besides  the  regular  vocational 
schools  which  have  a  large  Jewish  quota,  the 
Jewish  Technical  Institute  of  New  York  has 
trained  during  its  existence  thousands  of  young 
mechanics,  electricians,  plumbers,  etc. 

The  Jew  excels  in  intellectual  pursuits.  His 
position  in  the  colleges  and  universities  has  of 
late  been  the  subject  of  a  great  deal  of  comment. 
In  an  attempt  to  ascertain  the  number  of  students 
of  the  Jewish  race  in  the  various  higher  institu¬ 
tions  of  learning,  the  Bureau  of  Jewish  Social  Re¬ 
search  gives  the  figures  available  for  106  institu¬ 
tions.  Out  of  a  total  of  153,085  students,  Jews 
numbered  14,837,  that  is,  9.7%  of  the  entire  stu¬ 
dent  body.  The  Jewish  representation  in  aca¬ 
demic  spheres  is  three  times  their  proportion  to 
the  general  population.  In  New  York  City,  how¬ 
ever,  the  Jewish  representation  is  38.5%,  while 
their  proportion  to  the  city’s  population  is  about 
30%.  Female  students  are  on  the  average  of  one 
to  five,  somewhat  lower  than  the  percentage 
among  non-Jews,  where  the  proportion  of  female 
students  to  male  is  one  to  three.  The  largest  num- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  141 

ber  of  female  students  attended  courses  in  com¬ 
merce  and  finance,  the  next  largest  were  preparing 
for  the  teaching  profession. 

In  New  York  City,  during  the  scholastic  year 
1918-1919,  the  total  number  of  Jewish  students 
at  Adelphi,  Polytechnic,  Columbia,  Fordham, 
Hunter,  Long  Island  Medical,  New  York  Uni¬ 
versity  and  the  College  of  Dental  and  Oral  Sur¬ 
gery  was  7,148  out  of  a  total  of  18,552. 

Striking  differences  appear  in  the  distribution 
of  Jews  and  non-Jews  in  the  professional  schools 
of  the  country.  About  23.17%  of  the  Jewish  stu¬ 
dents  attended  courses  in  finance  while  of  the  non- 
Jewish  students  the  average  was  11.8%.  In 
medicine  the  Jewish  proportion  was  almost  double 
the  proportion  of  non-Jews,  while  in  the  study  of 
law,  14.7%  of  the  Jewish  student  body  participated 
and  only  6.4%  of  the  non-Jewish  group.  In  den¬ 
tistry  also  there  is  a  Jewish  flux,  the  proportion  of 
Jews  being  12%  while  that  of  the  non-Jewish 
group  is  4.7%. 

There  is  a  reversal  of  this  situation  in  engineer¬ 
ing,  where  the  non-Jewish  proportion  is  double 
that  of  Jewish. 

About  8.1%  of  the  Gentile  student  body  were 
represented  in  agriculture.  Here  the  Jews  were 
numerically  insignificant,  the  Jewish  forestry  stu¬ 
dents  were  1.6%  of  the  entire  Jewish  group.  In 


142  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

the  teaching  profession  the  Gentile  average  was 
larger  also,  13.5%  to  5%. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note,  in  this  connection, 
that  the  Jewish  students  have  contributed  more 
than  their  share  toward  the  intellectual  activities 
of  our  colleges.  Jews  form  a  large  proportion  of 
our  intercollegiate  debaters;  Jewish  names  are  re¬ 
markably  prominent  among  prize  winners  in  all 
sorts  of  intellectual  contests;  and  in  the  College 
Anthologies,  edited  by  Dr.  Henry  T.  Schnittkind 
who  selects  annually  the  best  poems  written  by 
undergraduates,  the  poems  of  Jewish  students  are 
more  than  15%  of  the  total. 

The  ideal  American  differs  from  the  ideal 
European  in  that  he  is  an  individualist,  the  pos¬ 
sessor  of  initiative,  of  ambition,  of  the  desire  to 
achieve  and  to  mould.  It  is  this  ideal  which  finds 
in  the  Jew  its  arch  propagandist.  America  was 
created  as  an  experiment  by  its  more  idealistic 
founders,  as  an  attempt  to  see  how  far  the  exten¬ 
sion  of  opportunities  for  material  well-being  and 
spiritual  development  could  redeem  the  individual 
fleeing  from  a  caste-ridden  Europe;  and  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  individuals  or  groups  stands  as  a  vindica¬ 
tion  of  the  judgment  of  the  early  fathers.  The 
comparative  success  of  the  Jews  in  this  respect 
acts  as  a  constant  stimulant  upon  the  neighboring 
immigrants  of  other  groups,  and  by  virtue  of  that 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  143 

he  becomes  the  exponent  of  the  gospel  of  Amer¬ 
ica, — the  gospel  that  the  good  things  of  life  come 
to  those  who  have  ability  to  achieve  them. 

On  November  30,  1907,  the  New  York  Italian 
newspaper,  Bollettino  della  Serra  printed  the 
following  editorial. 

Let  us  do  as  the  Jews  do.  Do  we  not  all  see  the  giant 
strides  which  the  Hebrew  element  is  making  in  their  grow¬ 
ing  influence  in  this  country?  .  .  .  Israelites  are  the  law¬ 
yers,  judges,  doctors,  professors,  teachers,  managers  of 
theatres,  monopolists  of  the  arts.  The  most  perfect  insti¬ 
tutions  of  mutual  aid  and  providence  are  Israelite.  Their 
clubs,  social,  political,  artistic  and  professional,  are  the  best 
of  their  kind.  Their  schools  are  the  most  frequented  and 
active.  .  .  .  Those  who  can  emulate  them  in  this  method 
of  intellectual  and  social  invasion  are  the  Italians  who 
have  much  affinity  of  intellect  and  artistic  sensibility  with 
the  old  and  refined  Jewish  race.  But  we  must  do  as  they 
do,  we  must  invade  the  schools,  teach  ourselves,  have  our 
children  taught.  Open  to  them  the  social  paths  by  means 
of  knowledge  and  genius.  .  .  .  Without  being  niggardly 
and  egotistic  as  the  Jew  sometimes  is,  let  us  try  to  imitate 
him  in  his  ardor  for  conquest  and  in  the  discipline  and 
knowledge  with  which  he  knows  how  to  organize  his  ad¬ 
mirable  institutions,  which  put  him  in  a  position  to  raise  a 
high  voice  and  command  respect  for  the  name  of  the  race. 

This  is  the  reason  we  have  put  at  the  head  of  this  arti¬ 
cle  the  exhortation,  “Let  us  do  as  the  Jews  do.” 


CHAPTER  VIII 
IN  THE  AMERICAN  THEATRE 

In  the  theatre  of  America,  the  Jew  has  played 
a  role  disproportionate  entirely  to  his  numerical 
strength.  He  has  reorganized  its  corporate  man¬ 
agement  and  given  it  a  solidity  and  stability  lack¬ 
ing  in  previous  stages  of  development.  The  fly- 
by-night  companies,  the  individualistic  efforts  of 
star-producers  doomed  to  defeat  because  of  errors 
of  reorganization  and  management,  have  com¬ 
pletely  disappeared.  A  vast  amount  of  new  capi¬ 
tal  has  been  poured  in,  making  possible  lavish  pro¬ 
ductions  and  gigantic  spectacles  beyond  the  means 
of  the  earlier  producers. 

An  indispensable  aid  in  the  attainment  of  the 
Jew’s  role  in  the  theatre  has  been  his  faculty  for 
gauging  the  demands  of  the  public.  The  produc¬ 
tion  of  a  play  is  one  of  the  most  risky  of  all  ven¬ 
tures.  A  large  outlay  of  capital  is  spent  prior 
to  the  rising  of  the  first  curtain,  yet  the  whims  of 
the  public  and  its  ultimate  verdict  as  to  the  success 

of  the  play  are  rarely  certain.  Besides  the  posses- 

144 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  145 

sion  of  prophetic  powers,  there  is  also  necessary 
enterprise,  initiative,  the  capacity  for  organiza¬ 
tion;  these  characteristics  have  always  been  asso¬ 
ciated  with  the  Jew. 

Thus  it  is  that  he  has  risen  to  a  place  of  promi¬ 
nence  in  the  theatrical  world.  And  despite  the 
carping  of  critics,  it  is  during  the  supremacy  of  the 
Jew  in  the  American  theatre  that  St.  John  Irvine, 
the  English  playwright,  could  with  truth  say  that 
the  center  of  the  English  speaking  stage  has  been 
transferred  from  England  to  America.  It  is  dur¬ 
ing  this  period  that  American  plays  have  often  sup¬ 
planted  the  native  play  in  favor  and  popularity 
among  the  populations  of  the  European  Capitals. 
It  is  during  this  period  that  we  have  European 
directors  arriving  on  these  shores  to  see  the  de¬ 
velopment  and  improvement  of  the  American 
stage  and  to  learn  lessons  about  dramatic  produc¬ 
tion.  It  is  during  this  period  that  we  have  vice 
versa,  the  importation  to  America  of  the  best  that 
Europe  has  in  the  theatre  and  the  emergence  of  a 
real  native  American  drama. 

The  Jews  are  represented  in  all  the  phases  of 
dramatic  endeavor.  It  has  been  estimated  that  of 
the  plays  produced  during  1922  the  authors  of 
40%  were  Jews,  and  the  professional  art  directors 
were  one  third  of  the  total.  Of  the  two  thousand 
actors  about  10%  were  Jews,  while  the  majority 


146  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

of  theatres  in  which  productions  were  staged  were 
in  the  hands  of  Jewish  managers. 

A  host  of  Jewish  producers  have  arisen  since 
the  Jewish  influx  into  the  American  theatre. 
David  Belasco  and  Charles  Frohman  were  among 
the  pioneers,  but  since  then  a  number  of  others 
have  appeared  on  the  scene.  Morris  Gest,  the 
Selwyns,  the  Woodses,  Sam  Harris,  Mindlin  and 
Goldreyer,  the  Shuberts,  are  among  the  later 
arrivals.  Some  have  been  content  to  please  the 
popular  demand,  and  some  have,  on  the  other 
hand,  attempted  the  hazardous  and  usually  thank¬ 
less  job  of  educating  the  public  taste  to  more 
artistic  standards. 

David  Belasco  (born  San  Francisco,  1850)  is 
the  oldest  and  best  known  of  the  Jewish  managers. 
He  comes  from  a  family  that  numbered  among  its 
members  several  devotees  of  the  histrionic  art. 
Starting  his  career  as  an  actor,  he  supported  the 
greatest  of  the  early  American  players, — Charles 
Kean,  Edwin  Forrest,  Edwin  Booth,  and  others. 
Later  he  appeared  in  New  York  where  he  deter¬ 
mined  to  set  out  as  a  producer.  His  first  inde¬ 
pendent  production  was  in  1895,  when  he  pro¬ 
duced  the  “Heart  of  Maryland.”  It  was  Belasco 
who  discovered  some  of  the  great  performers  of 
the  American  stage.  He  brought  out  Warfield, 
Leslie  Carter,  Blanche  Bates,  Frances  Starr, 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  147 

Leonore  Ulrich,  and  a  host  of  others,  who  under 
his  guidance,  have  since  made  much  of  the  dra¬ 
matic  history  of  America.  Some  of  his  produc¬ 
tions  are  the  landmarks  of  theatrical  development. 
Among  them  are  the  “Music  Master,”  “Du- 
Barry,”  “Girl  of  the  Golden  West,”  “Return  of 
Peter  Grimm,”  etc.  While  over  seventy,  he  still  is 
as  active  as  ever,  the  Nestor  and  the  most  impres¬ 
sive  figure  of  the  American  theatre. 

His  son-in-law,  Morris  Gest,  is  a  Russian  immi¬ 
grant  Jew  who  has  risen  by  sheer  energy  and  in¬ 
telligence  from  obscurity  to  a  place  of  dominance 
in  the  world  of  drama.  Gest  came  to  America  at 
the  age  of  nine.  After  doing  all  sorts  of  menial 
labor  he  participated  in  the  Pan  American  Exposi¬ 
tion,  an  experience  which  gave  him  his  first  deep 
insight  into  the  production  of  public  spectacles. 
Later  on  he  found  work  with  Oscar  Hammerstein, 
who  told  him  he  would  some  day  own  the  Man¬ 
hattan  Opera  House,  a  prophecy  which  has  since 
then  been  realized.  He  became  the  foreign  agent 
for  Hammerstein  and  later  branched  out  for  him¬ 
self. 

Gest  is  a  specialist  in  gigantic  and  lavish  pro¬ 
ductions  that  delight  the  eye  with  their  colorful 
beauty.  He  staged  “The  Wanderer,”  “Experi¬ 
ence,”  “Chu  Chin  Chow”  which  ran  for  several 
years  in  London,  “Aphrodite,”  “Mecca,”  “The 


148  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Miracle,”  etc.  Gest  also  has  been  instrumental  in 
giving  to  America  a  glimpse  of  the  art  of  Europe, 
particularly  Russia.  All  the  Russian  productions 
which  have  created  a  veritable  sensation  in  the 
theatre  have  been  produced  under  his  guidance. 
He  has  brought  over  to  America  the  Ballet  Russe, 
Fokine,  Balieff’s  Chauve  Souris,  and  last  and  most 
important  of  all  the  Moscow  Art  Theatre. 

Daniel  and  Charles  Frohman,  of  whom  only  the 
former  survives,  were  together  with  Belasco,  the 
pioneers  of  the  newer  American  drama.  Charles 
Frohman  met  his  death  on  the  Lusitania.  His 
brother  Daniel  has  remained  one  of  the  luminaries 
in  the  theatrical  world.  Starting  life  as  an  office 
boy  on  the  New  York  Tribune f  he  later  entered 
the  theatrical  business.  Since  1885  he  has  distin¬ 
guished  himself  by  the  production  of  some  of  the 
classics  of  the  American  stage.  He  is  held  in  high 
esteem  by  the  profession  and  has  been  elected  to 
the  Presidency  of  the  Actors’  Fund.  He  is  con¬ 
nected  with  the  Lyceum  Theatre,  Daly’s  Theatre, 
and  a  number  of  other  houses. 

But  if  the  Jew  has  played  an  important  role  in 
the  creation  of  the  commercial  drama,  his  partici¬ 
pation  in  the  so-called  artistic  drama  has  been 
more  potent.  All  the  varied  attempts  which  have 
been  made  during  the  past  decade  or  so  to  produce 
a  drama  with  a  primary  eye  to  artistic  and 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  149 

aesthetic  values  have  been  originated  or  sponsored 
to  a  large  extent  by  Jews.  The  New  Theatre,  the 
Washington  Square  Players,  the  Neighborhood 
Playhouse  and  the  Theatre  Guild  are  all  evidences 
of  the  insurgent  Jewish  mind,  active  in  its  new 
role  of  improving  upon  the  standard  plays.  What 
is  necessary  for  success  in  this  realm  of  dramatic 
endeavor  is  the  unique  duality  which  seems  to  be 
present  in  the  personality  of  many  Jews,  the  vision 
of  the  unseen  and  of  the  ideal,  sobered  by  an  acute 
knowledge  of  reality. 

The  Theatre  Guild  stands  out  perhaps  as  the 
foremost  contribution  to  the  contemporary  non¬ 
commercial  drama.  Started  some  years  ago,  with 
but  a  hundred  and  fifty  subscribers,  today  it  is 
hailed  as  the  basis  of  a  new  National  Art  Theatre. 
The  first  important  production  which  it  staged  was 
“John  Ferguson”  by  St.  John  Irvine,  a  play  which 
Lawrence  Langner,  one  of  the  directors,  happened 
to  pick  up  accidentally  in  Brentano’s  London 
Bookshop.  Since  then,  the  best  of  our  contempo¬ 
rary  drama  has  been  produced  there.  Plays  which 
would  have  been  rejected  by  the  commercial  man¬ 
agers  were  staged  solely  for  their  artistic  and 
aesthetic  value.  Plays  which  are  profitable  are 
made  to  pay  for  plays  which  require  too  high  a 
standard  of  dramatic  appreciation  and  which 
therefore  are  of  a  limited  appeal. 


150  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

The  Guild  has  staged  among  other  plays  — 
“The  Power  of  Darkness,”  “The  Faithful,”  “Jane 
Clegg,”  “Heartbreak  House,”  “Liliom,”  “Am¬ 
bush,”  etc.  Theresa  Helbrum,  a  young  Jewess  of 
brilliant  attainments,  is  exeuctive  director  of  the 
organization.  On  the  Board  of  Managers  only 
one,  Helen  Westley,  is  non-Jewish.  Philip  Moel¬ 
ler,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Washington  Square 
Players,  author  of  “Moliere”  and  “Madame 
Sand,”  is  a  member  of  the  Board.  Associated 
with  him  in  this  task  of  creating  a  high  standard 
of  American  drama  is  Lawrence  Langner,  an 
authority  on  patent  law  whose  business  acumen  has 
not  dulled  his  zeal  for  the  theatre.  Langner 
comes  from  an  old  Jewish  family  and  is  a  direct 
descendant  of  one  of  the  Chief  Rabbis  of  England. 
In  this  group  also  is  Lee  Simonson,  who  has 
startled  the  theatre-going  public  by  his  innovations 
in  the  art  of  stagecraft. 

Maurice  Wertheim,  banker  and  patron  of  the 
arts,  and  Otto  Kahn,  Maecenas  of  the  group, 
have  contributed  to  the  material  success  upon 
which  the  artistic  triumphs  of  the  American  drama 
have  been  based. 

One  of  the  few  real  endeavors  to  create  a 
native  drama  of  satire  has  been  done  by  a  New 
York  group  called  the  Forty-Niners,  of  whom 
the  majority  were  Jewish.  It  was  an  attempt  to 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  15  i 

improve  upon  the  banalities  that  very  often  pass 
as  humor  on  the  vaudeville  stage.  A  series  of 
brilliant  sketches  was  staged  in  1922  at  the  Punch 
and  Judy  theatre  where  the  sophisticated  in  the 
American  theatrical  world  gathered  to  be  amused 
and  enlightened.  The  group  contained  the  cream 
of  the  New  York  literati,  Heywood  Broun, 
George  S.  Kaufman,  Marc  Connelly,  Morris  Rys- 
kind,  Dorothy  Parker,  Montague  Glass,  Franklin 
P.  Adams,  Walt  Kuhn,  Bertram  Block,  Robert 
Benchley.  Of  this  group  but  three  are  non-Jews. 
What  the  future  work  of  this  group  will  be  is  still 
unknown.  It  nevertheless  represents  a  gathering 
of  forces  which  augurs  well  for  the  American 
theatre. 

No  story  of  the  Jew  on  the  American  Stage  is 
complete  without  mention  of  the  Yiddish  Art 
Theatre.  Here  we  have  a  group  of  players  differ¬ 
ent  from  all  other  dramatic  organizations.  It  is 
a  repertoire  company  which  is  unlike  the  average 
stock  company.  The  latter  discards  its  plays  at 
the  week’s  end.  The  Yiddish  Art  Group,  how¬ 
ever,  repeats  its  plays  as  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company  repeats  its  performances.  It  has  estab¬ 
lished  an  extremely  high  standard  of  dramatic  art 
and  has  been  hailed  by  Kenneth  McGowan,  the 
eminent  dramatic  critic,  “as  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  Moscow  Art  Theatre.”  Though  the  actors 


152  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

speak  in  the  Yiddish  language,  they  have  attracted 
a  number  of  non-Jews  who  are  frequent  attend¬ 
ants  at  the  performances.  One  play,  “Anathema,” 
was  transferred  from  the  stage  of  the  Yiddish  Art 
Theatre  to  Broadway  at  the  request  of  important 
figures  in  the  New  York  dramatic  world.  During 
the  four  years  of  its  existence,  the  Yiddish  Art 
Theatre  has  produced  no  less  than  seventy  plays, 
some  of  them  ranking  among  the  best  of  the 
world’s  dramas.  There  have  been  presented  plays 
from  the  pens  of  Andreyev,  Asch,  Gorky,  Haupt¬ 
mann,  Hirschbein,  Ibsen,  Shaw,  Shakespeare  and 
Pinski,  while  at  the  same  time  a  helping  hand  has 
been  extended  for  the  production  of  plays  of  new 
and  promising  Yiddish  playwrights.  From  its 
midst  has  come  the  well-known  actor,  Jacob  Ben 
Ami,  who  was  introduced  to  the  American  stage  by 
Arthur  Hopkins.  At  present  the  Yiddish  Art 
Theatre  is  under  the  management  of  Maurice 
Swartz,  who  is  himself  an  actor  of  unusual  dis¬ 
tinction. 

In  the  realm  of  dramatic  criticism,  the  Jew  is 
by  no  means  idle.  Here,  too,  the  critical  acumen 
of  the  race  and  its  capacity  for  analysis  have  en¬ 
abled  them  to  make  no  small  contribution  to 
American  criticism.  George  Jean  Nathan  (born 
at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  1882)  is  one  of  the  best 
known  of  these.  He  is  the  enfant  terrible  of 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  153 

% 

American  dramatic  criticism.  He  has  dealt  heavy 
blows  at  the  smugness  and  provincialism  of  the 
American  stage.  He  is  acquainted  thoroughly 
with  the  dramatic  literature  of  the  leading  Euro¬ 
pean  countries.  This  knowledge  has  greatly  aided 
him  in  raising  a  vociferous  war  whoop  against  the 
artificiality,  cheapness,  and  tawdriness  of  some 
of  the  stuff  that  passes  for  drama.  He  is  an  acrid 
and  aggressive  controversialist,  gifted  with  a  sense 
of  irony  and  bitter  humor  which  makes  him  the 
bug-a-boo  of  his  intellectual  opponents. 

From  1908  to  1924  he  was  the  dramatic  critic 
and  co-editor  of  the  Smart  Set.  He  has  also  con¬ 
tributed  articles  on  the  drama  to  a  syndicate  of 
newspapers.  He  has  written  one  play,  “The 
Eternal  Mystery,”  which  has  been  produced  on 
the  Broadway  stage.  Among  his  more  important 
works  are  “Another  Book  on  the  Theatre,” 
“Bottoms  Up,”  “Comedians  All,”  “The  Popular 
Theatre.” 

Another  of  the  Jewish  figures  in  the  world  of 
criticism  is  Ludwig  Lewisohn  (born  in  Berlin, 
1882).  Lewisohn  came  to  America  in  1890  and 
underwent  a  series  of  experiences  that  are  related 
in  his  remarkable  autobiography,  “Upstream.” 
He  lacks  the  bitter  humor  and  the  ironic  gifts  of 
Nathan  but  compensates  for  these  by  a  more  bal¬ 
anced  and  beautiful  style  and  a  more  judicious 


154  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

view  of  things  than  is  possessed  by  his  colleague. 
He,  too,  has  plowed  deep  into  European  litera¬ 
ture,  and  is  particularly  authoritative  in  the  realm 
of  German  drama.  Since  1919  he  has  been  the 
dramatic  critic  of  The  Nation .  Among  his 
works  are  “German  Style,”  “The  Modern 
Drama,”  “Poets  of  Modern  France.”  He  was 
also  the  translator  and  editor  of  the  dramatic 
works  of  Gerhard  Hauptmann  in  seven  volumes. 

While  these  two  writers  are  the  outstanding 
figures  among  the  critics  of  Jewish  birth  and  per¬ 
haps  of  the  whole  American  theatre,  there  are 
others  who  have  made  interesting  and  valuable 
contributions  to  the  American  drama. 

Montrose  Moses  (born  in  New  York,  1878) 
has  written  a  number  of  volumes  on  the  theatre. 
He  was  formerly  the  dramatic  critic  of  the  Inde¬ 
pendent  and  at  present  is  a  prolific  contributor  to 
various  magazines.  While  possessing  neither  the 
cleverness  of  Nathan  nor  the  stylistic  beauty  of 
Lewisohn,  he  has  a  sober,  reliable  and  penetrating 
power  of  observation.  He  has  to  his  credit  the 
following  works,  among  others,  “Francesco  De 
Rimini,”  “Henrik  Ibsen,  the  Man  and  his  Plays,” 
“The  Literature  of  the  South,”  “The  American 
Dramatist,”  “Maurice  Maeterlinck,  A  Study.” 

Alan  Dale  (Alfred  J.  Cohen)  was  born  in  Birm¬ 
ingham,  England,  1861.  He  has  been  associated 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  155 

with  several  metropolitan  newspapers  and  at 
present  is  the  critic  of  the  New  York  American. 
Alan  Dale,  however,  is  not  simply  a  critic.  His 
activity  extends  to  the  creative  realm,  and  he  has 
written  a  number  of  plays  which  have  been  pro¬ 
duced.  He  is  the  author  of  “Jonathan’s  Home,” 
“A  Marriage  Below  Zero,”  “My  Footlight  Hus¬ 
band.” 

In  fact,  the  Jew  does  not  lag  behind  in  the 
writing  of  plays;  in  this  aspect  of  the  American 
drama,  he  has  a  long  history.  The  story  of  Jewish 
playwrights  in  America  extends  over  a  century.  At 
the  early  beginnings  of  the  American  National 
drama  it  was  a  Jew  that  stood  out  as  its  foremost 
playwright. 

Mordecai  Manuel  Noah  was  born  in  Philadel¬ 
phia  in  1786.  By  his  eloquence  and  wit  he  soon 
won  for  himself  a  place  in  American  politics  and 
drama.  In  1810  he  became  the  Editor  of  the 
Charleston  Gazette  and  later,  during  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  President  Monroe,  he  was  appointed  to 
the  position  of  Consul  in  Tunis.  Upon  his  return 
he  devoted  himself  to  literature,  and  the  theatre. 
His  plays  were  uniformly  successful.  He  was  the 
author  of  the  “Wandering  Boys,”  “The  Grecian 
Captive,”  “The  Fortress  of  Sorrento,”  “The  New 
Constitution,”  and  a  number  of  other  plays.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  George  P.  Morris,  the  editor  of  one  of 


156  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

the  earliest  literary  journals  in  New  York,  Noah 
told  the  best  story,  rounded  the  best  sentence  and 
wrote  the  best  play  of  all  his  contemporaries. 

There  were  other  Jewish  playwrights  in  that 
early  period  of  the  American  Stage.  Samuel  B. 
H.  Judah  came  of  an  old  colonial  family  that  set¬ 
tled  in  New  York  in  1725.  The  father  of  Judah 
was  one  of  New  York’s  prominent  merchants  and 
the  founder  in  1786  of  the  “New  York  Tontine.” 

Judah  began  writing  in  1820  and  among  his 
plays  might  be  mentioned  “The  Mountain  Tor¬ 
rent,”  “The  Rose  of  Aragon,”  and  the  “Tale  of 
Lexington.” 

A  colleague  of  his  was  Jonas  B.  Phillips,  a  ver¬ 
satile  young  Jew  who  was  at  one  time  Assistant 
District  Attorney  in  New  York  City.  He  first 
appears  in  connection  with  the  drama  in  1833.  In 
1838  he  wrote  “Cold  Stricken.”  Other  plays  of 
his  were  “Camillus”  and  the  “Evil  Eye.”  The 
latter  particularly  was  a  great  success.  It  was 
produced  at  the  Bowery  Theatre,  where  it  won 
the  approbation  of  the  theatre  goers  of  that  day. 
In  1835  he  was  given  a  complimentary  benefit  as 
a  token  of  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his 
contemporaries. 

The  newer  crop  of  dramatists  is  of  course  more 
numerous  and  more  prolific.  They  touch  upon  all 
phases  of  human  life  and  belong  to  the  various 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  157 

schools  of  dramatic  writing.  There  was  Charles 
Klein,  who  wrote  plays  of  politics  and  finance, 
there  is  Montague  Glass,  with  his  humor  and  at 
times  superficial  characterization  of  Ghetto  types, 
the  creator  of  the  Potash  and  Perlmutter  stories. 
There  is  the  youthful  Elmer  Rice,  varying  from 
the  sensational  drama  “On  Trial”  to  the  expres- 
sionistic  drama,  produced  by  the  Theatre  Guild, 
entitled  “The  Adding  Machine.”  There  is  Arthur 
Richman  with  his  keen  study  of  the  American  girl 
entitled  “Ambush”  and  also  several  other  plays. 
Aaron  Hoffman  has  treated  of  many  subjects, 
while  Louis  Kaufman  Anspacher  has  treated  of 
social  themes,  his  most  notable  work  being  “The 
Unchastened  Woman.” 

Ben  Hecht  has  tried  his  hand  at  the  drama. 
Two  plays  of  the  Yiddish  playwright  Pinski  have 
been  produced  on  the  English  stage,  “The 
Treasure”  and  the  “Idle  Inn.”  “The  Bronx  Ex¬ 
press,”  by  Ossip  Dimow,  moved  from  the  Yiddish 
Art  Theatre  to  the  regular  stage.  Louis  Shipman 
and  Abraham  Shomer  have  written  for  Broadway, 
while  Belasco  has  among  his  endless  worries  found 
time  to  write  several  plays  of  his  own.  Jules 
Eckert  Goodman  has  delighted  American  aud¬ 
iences  time  and  time  again. 

Though  the  dramatic  tradition  among  Jews  is 
comparatively  young,  nevertheless  the  people  of 


158  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Rachel  and  Sarah  Bernhardt  have  done  conspicu¬ 
ous  service.  There  is  David  Warfield  who  has 
starred  in  “The  Music  Master,”  “The  Return  of 
Peter  Grimm,”  “The  Auctioneer,”  and  a  host  of 
other  plays.  He  played  the  role  of  Shylock  in 
that  splendid  production  of  the  “Merchant  of 
Venice”  placed  upon  the  stage  by  Belasco.  There 
is  Jacob  Ben  Ami,  drafted  from  the  Yiddish  stage, 
and  both  Schildkrauts,  Joseph  and  Rudolph,  Louis 
Wohlheim,  Barney  Bernard,  Louis  Fields,  Harry 
Green,  Louis  Mann,  Kenneth  McKenna  (Leo 
Mielziner,  Jr.)  and  Robert  Warwick,  —  to  men¬ 
tion  only  a  few. 

The  actresses  are  numberless,  Alla  Nazimova, 
Florence  Reed,  Vivienne  Segal,  Bertha  Kalisch, 
Celia  Adler,  Constance  Collier,  Olga  Nethersole, 
Bertha  Broad,  Lina  Abarbanel,  Fannie  Brice,  Nan 
Halperin,  Francine  Larrimore  (Adler),  Clara 
Lipman,  Fania  Marinoff.  Among  comedians,  A1 
Jolson,  Eddie  Cantor  and  Ed  Wynn  (Israel  Leo¬ 
pold)  are  in  the  front  rank.  The  extent  to  which 
Jews  have  become  members  of  the  theatrical  pro¬ 
fession  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  A1 
Jolson,  in  conjunction  with  Houdini,  the  great 
magician,  have  organized  the  unique  “Rabbis’ 
Sons  Theatrical  Benevolent  Association”  to  which 
only  the  sons  of  Jewish  synagogal  functionaries 
are  eligible. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  159 

In  the  realm  of  the  screen,  the  Jew  has  had  a 
romantic  history.  His  appearance  dates  from  its 
earliest  beginnings  and  since  that  day,  largely 
under  his  control,  it  has  become  a  powerful  factor 
in  the  life  of  the  peoples  of  the  world.  Originally 
confined  to  some  obscure  hall,  admission  to  which 
necessitated  the  possession  of  a  nickel  and  in  which 
the  program  consisted  of  a  few  ancient  one-reel 
pictures,  the  producer  of  the  silent  drama  has, 
within  a  decade,  made  it  the  powerful  rival  of  a 
centuries  old  institution  like  the  legitimate  theatre. 
The  factor  that  raised  it  to  its  present  status  was 
not  simply  the  commercial  urge ;  it  took  a  sweeping 
imagination  and  comprehensive  far-sightedness 
to  lift  it  from  irrelevancy  to  the  position  it  occu¬ 
pies  today.  And  the  most  remarkable  fact  about 
its  vast  growth  is  that  the  organizing  powers  and 
prophetic  vision  came  not  from  regular  captains 
of  industry  or  from  men  who  had  won  their  spurs 
in  the  economic  life,  but  rather  from  a  number  of 
hitherto  obscure  Jews  engaged  in  the  daily  strug¬ 
gle  for  existence.  The  humble  origin  of  the 
leaders  of  the  motion  picture  industry  is  to  their 
credit;  it  is  a  remarkable  testimony  to  native 
powers  of  organization  and  ability  which,  given 
the  opportunity  to  expand,  flourish  and  fructify. 

The  motion  picture  being  still  in  its  compara¬ 
tive  infancy,  it  is  only  now,  after  its  material  ex- 


160  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

pansion  has  taken  place,  beginning  to  establish  it¬ 
self  on  a  higher  aesthetic  and  artistic  plane.  The 
services  of  the  best  of  contemporary  novelists 
have  been  called  in;  and  all  the  devices  that 
modern  stagecraft  has  invented  are  being  utilized 
for  its  artistic  enhancement.  Popular  taste  must 
be  catered  to  if  any  material  foundation  is  to  be 
preserved  for  the  art  of  the  motion  picture,  and 
its  crudeness  is  to  be  attributed  chiefly  to  this 
cause.  As  it  is,  the  linking  of  the  motion  picture 
with  the  literary  and  artistic  world  is  being  di¬ 
rected  and  guided  by  one  of  the  chief  Jews  in  the 
realm  of  the  screen,  Adolph  Zukor. 

It  is  Zukor  who  is  the  most  vigorous  and  able 
of  this  group  of  Jews  which  direct  the  destinies  of 
the  motion  pictures.  Born  in  Hungary  of  poor 
parentage  in  1873,  he  came  to  the  United  States  in 
1888.  In  New  York  he  attended  the  night  schools 
after  laborious  hours  of  work.  At  first  engaged 
in  the  hardware  business,  he  drifted  into  uphol¬ 
stering,  then  into  the  fur  industry.  Finally  he 
associated  himself  with  Marcus  Loew  in  the 
theatre,  where  he  began  to  display  those  powers 
of  organization  and  foresight  that  enthroned  him 
in  his  place  of  supremacy. 

He  is  the  founder  of  the  Famous  Players-Lasky 
and  several  other  motion  picture  corporations.  It 
was  Zukor  who  called  the  first  general  conference 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  161 

of  eminent  authors  to  discuss  means  for  the  artis¬ 
tic  betterment  of  the  screen,  and  at  present  he  is 
lending  his  efforts  to  mobilizing  the  literary  and 
artistic  elite  of  the  country  for  co-operation  in 
moving  picture  production. 

Another  of  these  young  immigrants  who  have 
found  their  way  to  fame  via  the  route  of  the 
screen  is  Samuel  Goldwyn  (Goldfish).  Born  in 
Warsaw  in  1882  he  came  to  America  in  1896, 
where,  like  Zukor,  he  received  a  supplementary 
education  in  the  night  schools.  Later  he  drifted 
into  the  motion  pictures  and  founded  the  Goldwyn 
Pictures  Corporation,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
of  existing  producing  companies.  Goldwyn  has 
taken  particular  efforts  to  enlist  in  the  services  of 
the  silent  drama  the  great  opera  stars,  and  both 
Mary  Garden  and  Geraldine  Farrar  have  through 
his  efforts  participated  in  productions  for  the 
silver  sheet. 

Jesse  Lasky,  born  in  San  Francisco  in  1880,  is 
the  last  of  the  “Big  Three”  of  the  industry. 
Lasky  has  had  a  varied  career,  serving  as  a  re¬ 
porter,  a  gold  prospector,  a  band  leader,  and  a 
theatrical  manager.  Finally  he  began  to  show 
great  initiative  in  the  motion  pictures  and  has 
since  the  organization  of  the  Jesse  L.  Lasky  Cor¬ 
poration  become  one  of  the  dominant  figures. 

There  are  in  addition  a  number  of  other  man- 


1 62  The  Jews  in  the  Making  op  America 

agers,  Carl  Laemmle,  Sol  Lesser,  Joseph  Schenck, 
Marcus  Loew,  William  Fox,  William  Schulberg 
are  but  a  few  who  have  followed  in  the  wake 
of  the  pioneers  and  established  the  industry  so 
that  today  it  gives  employment  to  countless  thou¬ 
sands  and  serves  to  drive  away  the  hours  of  dull¬ 
ness  and  boredom  from  the  millions  of  people 
throughout  the  world.  It  represents  an  outlay  of 
$500,000,000,  while  the  annual  turnover  is  more 
than  a  billion.  There  are  also  a  number  of  stars 
who  are  of  Jewish  descent.  Carmel  Meyers,  the 
daughter  of  a  Rabbi,  Pola  Negri  (Pauline 
Schwartz),  Joseph  Schildkraut,  Dore  Davidson, 
Louis  Wolheim,  Vera  Gordon  are  but  a  few  of 
them. 


CHAPTER  IX 


IN  AMERICAN  LITERATURE 

Only  within  the  past  decade  or  two  have  Jewish 
names  begun  to  figure  prominently  in  American 
Literature.  But  with  their  advent  has  come  a 
recognizably  new  force  in  the  moulding  and  the 
making  of  the  American  literary  tradition.  The 
tendency  for  innovation  and  renovation,  those  re¬ 
sults  which  follow  inevitably  upon  the  penetration 
of  the  Jew  into  the  various  realms  of  human  en¬ 
deavor,  has  become  visible  here  as  elsewhere. 
Gertrude  Stein,  a  Jewess,  is  prominent  in  the  mod¬ 
ern  school  of  impressionism  and  expressionism, 
while  Waldo  Frank,  Ben  Hecht,  Maxwell  Boden- 
heim  and  other  young  Jews  are  ceaselessly  ham¬ 
mering  at  the  English  language  in  order  to  create 
new  images,  new  modes  of  expression  and  new 
and  unusual  phrases. 

Ben  Hecht,  one  of  the  younger  American  novel¬ 
ists,  has  written  several  notable  volumes.  “Erik 
Dorn”,  and  “Gargoyles”  are  among  his  most  pop¬ 
ular  works.  The  latter  is  a  particularly  note- 

163 


164  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

worthy  contribution  in  which  he  demonstrates  the 
great  disparity  between  the  real  emotions  of  peo¬ 
ple  and  their  pretences.  Of  his  work  the  eminent 
literary  critic,  H.  L.  Mencken,  wrote:  “There  are 
passages  of  superb  descriptive  writing — stuff  in¬ 
finitely  beyond  the  talents  or  even  the  imagination 
of  the  average  American  novelist.  Hecht  differs 
from  the  general  run,  indeed,  precisely  because  he 
knows  how  to  write.” 

Waldo  Frank  has  also  distinguished  himself  in 
fiction.  He  is  not  only  a  novelist  but  a  critic.  Be¬ 
sides  novels  like  “Rabab”,  “The  Dark  Mother”, 
etc.,  he  has  written  “Our  America”,  a  brilliant 
analysis  of  the  state  of  American  culture.  He  con¬ 
tributes  extensively  to  current  periodicals. 

Another  novelist  of  no  mean  calibre  is  Edna 
Ferber,  author  of  the  Emma  McChesney  stories, 
“Gigolo”,  “The  Girls”,  “Fanny  Herself”,  and  a 
host  of  short  stories  that  have  delighted  millions 
of  American  readers. 

John  Cournos,  author  of  “The  Mask”,  “The 
Wall”,  “Babel”,  is  a  Russian  immigrant  who  has 
spent  a  number  of  years  in  America  and  who  now 
spends  his  time  alternately  in  England  and  Amer¬ 
ica.  He  has  written  a  more  or  less  autobiographi¬ 
cal  trilogy  in  which  there  are  mirrored  the  de¬ 
fects  and  triumphs  of  a  young  artistic  nomad. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  165 

Fanny  Hurst  is  perhaps  the  highest  salaried 
writer  in  America.  Besides  “Humoresque”,  she 
has  written  a  large  number  of  short  stories  and 
has  portrayed  vividly  Jewish  types  that  have 
hitherto  been  buried  behind  Ghetto  walls. 

Rita  Weiman  is  another  talented  contributor  to 
American  literature.  She  received  her  artistic 
training  in  Paris  and  has  devoted  herself  to  vari¬ 
ous  forms  of  writing.  She  is  a  highly  competent 
journalist,  a  dramatist  who  has  seen  a  number  of 
her  plays  produced  in  the  Broadway  theatres  and 
a  writer  of  innumerable  short  stories. 

Thyra  Samter  Winslow,  whose  most  notable 
work  is  “Picture  Frames”,  is  still  a  comparatively 
young  author.  She  has  an  uncanny  acquaintance 
with  rural  American  types  which  predominate  in 
the  stories  she  has  written. 

Anzia  Yezierska,  author  of  “Hungry  Hearts”, 
“Salome  of  the  Tenements,  etc.,  is  a  young  Rus¬ 
sian  Jewish  immigrant  who  with  amazing  rapidity 
has  made  herself  a  master  of  the  language.  Miss 
Yezierska  worked  her  way  from  the  sweatshop  to 
a  well  established  place  in  the  American  literary 
world. 

Rose  Gollup  Cohen  has  to  her  credit  a  career 
strikingly  akin  to  that  of  Miss  Yezierska.  She, 
too,  is  an  immigrant  girl,  having  arrived  in  Amer- 


1 66  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

ica  at  the  age  of  twelve.  She  worked  fourteen 
hours  a  day  in  sweatshops  until  the  age  of  seven¬ 
teen,  when  she  went  to  the  hospital  to  recover  her 
health.  Here  she  stayed  three  months  and  learned 
to  read  English  from  the  Bible.  Her  “Out  of  the 
Shadow”  is  an  autobiographical  narrative,  replete 
with  human  interest.  This  volume  has  been  trans¬ 
lated  into  French  and  Danish.  Her  second  volume 
is  entitled  the  “Voice  of  the  Sod”. 

Mary  Antin  has  won  fame  with  “The  Promised 
Land”. 

Joseph  Anthony  (Rosenblatt)  is  the  author  of 
two  novels  “Rekindled  Fires”,  and  “The  Gang”. 

One  of  the  most  significant  of  the  Jewish  Amer¬ 
ican  novelists  is  Abraham  Cohan,  whose  “Rise  of 
David  Levinsky”  and  “The  White  Terror  and 
the  Red”  are  in  some  respects  real  works  of  art. 

There  are  also  a  number  of  other  Jewish  novel¬ 
ists, — Sydney  Nyburg,  Octavus  Roy  Cohen,  Elias 
Tobenkin,  Ezra  Brudno,  Robert  Simon,  Viola 
Brothers  Shore,  Herman  Bernstein,  Robert 
Nathan,  Maurice  Samuel,  author  of  “The  Out¬ 
sider”,  “Whatever  Gods”,  etc. 

In  the  field  of  literary  criticism,  Albert  Mor- 
dell,  Isaac  Goldberg  and  Joel  Springarn  play 
prominent  roles.  Mordell  is  the  author  of  “Shift¬ 
ing  Literary  Values”,  “The  Literature  of  Ecstacy”, 
“The  Erotic  Motive  in  Literature”,  etc.  Mordell 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  167 

is  essentially  an  exponent  of  modernism  in  the 
literature  of  today.  It  was  of  his  work  “Dante 
And  Other  Waning  Classics”  that  George  Bran- 
des,  the  world’s  greatest  literary  critic,  wrote  “If 
I  had  originally  any  scruples  against  your  funda¬ 
mental  ideas,  these  scruples  completely  ceased 
when  I  thoroughly  examined  the  execution  of  your 
plan.  Now  I  am  of  your  opinion.  It  is  necessary 
to  say  once  for  all  that  these  books  of  the  past  no 
longer  conform  to  our  intellectual  needs.  You 
have  had  the  courage  to  say  so  frankly.  Even  if 
they  attack  it  at  present,  in  the  near  future,  and 
not  at  all  in  the  distant  future,  they  will  be  grate¬ 
ful  to  you  for  having  said  it.” 

Isaac  Goldberg  is  a  versatile  and  erudite  trans¬ 
lator  as  well  as  a  critic  of  importance.  He  has 
translated  twenty-seven  plays  from  the  Yiddish, 
including  “The  Idle  Inn”,  which  was  presented  on 
the  Broadway  stage.  He  has  in  addition  trans¬ 
lated  the  gems  of  the  contemporary  Italian  Thea¬ 
tre.  Goldberg’s  linguistic  capacity  is  most  appar¬ 
ent  in  his  translations  from  foreign  fiction.  He 
has  translated  works  from  the  French,  the  Span¬ 
ish,  the  Portuguese,  Yiddish,  and  the  Italian. 

He  has  written  two  important  books  on  South 
American  literature  and  a  particularly  valuable 
work,  on  the  “Drama  of  Transition”.  In  this 
volume  he  treats  learnedly  yet  cleverly  of  the 


168  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

dramatic  tendencies  in  Spain,  Italy,  France,  Ger¬ 
many,  Russia,  South  America  and  the  Yiddish 
World. 

In  the  realm  of  the  short  story  Jewish  writers 
have  been  particularly  prolific.  Not  only  has  the 
quantity  been  large  but  the  quality  has  been  of 
the  highest.  In  the  collection  entitled,  the  “Best 
Short  Stories  of  1922”  which  contains  twenty 
short  stories,  the  Jews  have  a  disproportionate 
representation.  Seven  of  those  who  had  the  honor 
of  being  named  as  the  best  short  story  writers  of 
the  year  were  Jews.  They  were  Konrad  Berko- 
vici,  David  Freedman,  Benjamin  Rosenblatt, 
James  Oppenheim,  Waldo  Frank,  Ben  Hecht  and 
Rose  G.  Cohen.  This  collection  of  the  outstand¬ 
ing  literary  creations  of  the  year  are  made  an¬ 
nually  by  Edward  O’Brien,  the  literary  critic,  and 
in  each  volume  the  Jews  show  a  relatively  high 
percentage. 

If  we  turn  to  another  phase  of  literature  in 
America,  the  sphere  of  poetry,  Jewish  names  of 
importance  immediately  come  to  mind.  There 
is  the  much  discussed  question  whether  the  Jew  in 
American  poetry  brings  as  his  contribution  some¬ 
thing  that  is  distinctly  Jewish,  whether  the  same 
spirit  of  a  people  that  gave  mankind  its  religious 
poetry,  still  lives  on  in  its  descendants  today.  The 
Oriental  imagery  of  the  psalmists  of  Judea  seems 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  169 

to  crop  out  more  frequently  in  Jewish  poets  than 
in  non-Jewish  poets.  Similarly,  there  is  more  ego- 
centricity  in  their  contributions  than  in  those  of 
their  colleagues.  Irony  and  richness  of  phraseol¬ 
ogy,  associated  intimately  with  the  conception  of 
Hebrew  contribution  to  literature,  is  also  more  ap¬ 
parent  in  the  Jewish  poets.  There  are  of  course 
Jewish  bards  that  do  not  differ  at  all  from  the 
others,  they  belong  to  the  same  schools,  use  the 
same  methods,  and  fight  the  same  poetical  battles. 
Nevertheless,  one  must  conclude  from  a  survey  of 
contemporary  American  poetry  that  the  gen¬ 
eral  Hebraic  characteristics  of  self  absorption, 
Heineesque  irony  and  vivid  imagery  are  manifest 
to  a  greater  degree  among  the  Oppenheims  and 
Untermeyers  than  among  the  Benets  or  the  Amy 
Lowells. 

The  earliest  of  the  Jewish  writers  of  poetry 
was  Emma  Lazarus,  the  friend  of  Emerson  and 
a  member  of  an  old  Jewish  family.  During  her 
career,  unfortunately  cut  short,  she  made  a  num¬ 
ber  of  excellent  contributions  to  American  poetry. 
Some  of  her  lines  have  been  engraved  on  the 
Statue  of  Liberty  which  stands  at  the  entrance  to 
New  York  Harbor.  Towards  the  end  of  her 
life  she  became  intensely  race-conscious,  due 
largely  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Jews  in  Russia. 
At  the  height  of  the  period  of  her  race-conscious- 


170  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

ness  she  wrote  the  “Songs  of  a  Semite”,  full  of 
the  fire  of  an  ancient  Deborah. 

The  list  of  contemporary  Jewish  poets  in  Amer¬ 
ica  is  too  long  to  enumerate.  Recently  the  band 
of  Jewish  poets  has  become  numerous.  We  will 
mention  only  a  few  of  them.  One  of  the  foremost 
is  Louis  Untermeyer,  who  takes  high  rank  both 
as  a  poet  and  as  a  critic.  He  demonstrates  the 
unique  duality  of  the  Jew,  for  he  is  not  only  a 
successful  poet  but  also  a  successful  jewelry  mer¬ 
chant.  His  work  on  the  new  American  poetry  is 
the  standard  volume  on  the  subject,  while  in  his 
latest  volume,  “Roast  Leviathan,”  he  demon¬ 
strates  his  unusual  cleverness.  His  “Challenge” 
has  gone  through  five  editions.  He  has,  in  addi¬ 
tion,  translated  the  works  of  Heine  into  excellent 
English. 

His  wife,  Jean  Starr  Untermeyer,  is  also  a 
writer  of  clever  poetry.  Her  recent  volume  is 
entitled  “Growing  Pains.” 

The  Biblical  strain  is  at  times  visible  in  the 
poetry  of  James  Oppenheim.  Among  his  works 
are  “Songs  for  the  New  Age”,  “War  and  Laugh¬ 
ter”,  “Book  of  Self”,  etc.  The  freedom  of  men 
engages  his  pen  as  it  did  the  pens  of  his  ancestors. 
In  one  striking  passage  he  brings  forcefully  home 
the  message  of  mankind’s  salvation  and  freedom, 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  171 

that  theme  on  which  so  many  fervent  Jewish 
tongues  have  spoken: 

They  set  the  slave  free,  striking  off  his  chains, 
Then  he  was  as  much  a  slave  as  ever, 

He  was  still  chained  to  servility, 

He  was  still  manacled  to  indolence  and  sloth, 

He  was  still  bound  by  fear  and  superstition, 

By  ignorance,  suspicion  and  slavery. 

His  slavery  was  not  in  the  chain 
But  in  himself. 

They  can  only  set  free  men  free, 

And  there  is  no  need  of  that, 

Free  men  set  themselves  free. 

Arthur  Guiterman,  born  of  American  parents 
in  Vienna,  fifty-two  years  ago,  is  one  of  the  most 
active  writers  of  contemporary  verse.  He  does  not 
confine  himself  simply  to  one  kind  of  poetical  writ¬ 
ing,  he  is  equally  at  home  in  writing  a  humorous 
quip,  a  sombre  sonnet  or  a  lyrical  poem.  Among 
other  things  he  has  originated  the  widely  imitated 
rhymed  reviews.  An  outstanding  characteristic 
of  his  works  is  his  love  of  nature. 

After  centuries  of  confinement  behind  the 
Ghetto  walls,  the  Jew  is  stepping  forth  again  to 
behold  Nature,  in  all  its  beauty  and  to  sing  of  its 


172  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

wonders.  In  him  the  love  of  the  ancient  Judean 
for  his  hills  revives. 

I  never  loved  your  plains, 

Your  gentle  valleys, 

Your  drowsy  country  lanes, 

And  pleached  alleys. 

I  want  my  hills!  the  trail 
That  scorns  the  hollow, 

Up,  up  the  ragged  shale 
Where  few  will  follow. 

Up  over  wooded  crest 
And  mossy  boulder, 

With  strong  thigh,  heaving  chest 
And  swinging  shoulder. 

So  let  me  hold  my  own  way 
By  nothing  halted 
Until,  at  close  of  day 
I  stand  exalted. 

In  Alter  Brody  we  have  a  young  poet  not  yet 
thirty  years  of  age,  who  has  nevertheless  estab¬ 
lished  for  himself  a  reputation  among  the  poetical 
fraternity. 

Maxwell  Bodenheim  is  a  young  Jew  who  is 
rapidly  coming  to  the  front  among  the  younger 
generation  of  American  poets.  He  possesses  an 
unusual  gift  for  characterization.  He  is  not  only 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  173 

a  master  of  poetry  but  also  of  prose.  Among  his 

poetical  volumes  are  “Minna  and  Myself”,  “Ad- 

• 

vice  . 

Jewish  poetesses  also  are  making  themselves 
articulate  in  contemporary  American  verse. 
Babette  Deutsch  has  won  for  herself  an  enviable 
reputation.  Her  best  work  is  published  in  the 
volume  entitled  “Banners”.  Her  colleague, 
Florence  Kiper,  has  also  given  to  American  poetry 
some  valuable  contributions.  A  poem  of  hers, 
entitled  “A  Jew  to  Jesus,”  included  in  the  anthol¬ 
ogy  of  the  World’s  Best  Religious  Poetry,  is  un¬ 
usually  striking. 

O  Man  of  my  own  people,  I  alone 
Among  these  alien  people  can  know  thy  face, 

I  who  felt  the  kinship  of  our  race 

Burn  in  me  as  I  sit  where  they  intone 

Thy  praise — those  who  striving  to  make  known 

A  God  of  sacrifice  have  missed  the  grace 

Of  thy  sweet  human  meaning  in  its  place, 

Thou  who  art  of  our  blood  bond  and  our  own 
Are  we  not  sharers  of  thy  passion?  Yea 
In  spent  anguish  close  by  the  side 
We  drained  the  bitter  cup  and  tortured,  felt 
With  the  bruising  of  each  heavy  welt. 

In  every  land  is  our  Gethsemane 
A  thousand  times  have  we  been  crucified. 

Samuel  Roth,  Elias  Lieberman,  Franklin  P. 
Adams  are  known  to  many  readers  of  recent 


174  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

verse.  The  latter  is  also  one  of  the  most  success¬ 
ful  columnists  in  America,  the  widely  quoted 
F.  P.  A.  who  has  made  “The  Conning  Tower”  an 
established  institution  in  American  journalism. 

A  striking  example  of  the  versatility  of  the 
Jewish  mind  is  shown  in  the  work  of  Ezekiel 
Leavitt,  who  has  written  original  plays,  poems, 
and  essays  in  four  different  languages:  Hebrew, 
Yiddish,  Russian  and  English. 

Morris  Ryskind  is  a  master  of  clever  quips. 
Oscar  Williams,  Michael  Gold,  Milton  Raison, 
Samuel  Hoffenstein,  Joseph  Auslander,  Gustav 
Davidson,  Martin  Feinstein,  and  an  army  of  poets 
of  lesser  renown,  contribute  continually  to  the 
various  American  periodicals. 

Simultaneously  with  the  appearance  of  a  host 
of  Jewish  writers  in  contemporary  American  liter¬ 
ature  there  has  been  developing  within  the  past 
few  decades  a  voluminous  literature  in  the  native 
Yiddish  tongue  of  the  Russo-Jewish  immigrants. 
Yiddish  itself  has  definitely  passed  the  stage  where 
the  term  jargon  or  dialect  could  be  applied  to  it 
and  has  become  an  instrument  for  the  creation 
of  literary  and  cultural  values.  The  Jews  in  this 
country  have  produced  novelists,  playwrights  and 
poets  of  considerable  power  and  ability. 

Abner  Tannenbaum  has  translated  into  Yid¬ 
dish  the  best  of  the  French  and  German  novels 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  175 

while  Philip  Krantz  has  written  extensively  on  the 
cultural  history  of  mankind.  Alexander  Harkavy 
is  a  Yiddish  encyclopaedist.  Leon  Kobrin,  I. 
Opotashu,  Alter  Epstein,  Ossip  Dimow,  B.  Gorin, 
Israel  Zevin,  David  Pinski,  and  a  host  of  others 
fill  the  columns  of  the  Yiddish  Press  with  splendid 
short  stories.  But  Sholom  Asch  perhaps  is  the 
outstanding  Yiddish  fiction  writer.  A  number  of 
his  works  have  been  translated  into  the  European 
languages. 

The  Yiddish  language  is  becoming  enriched 
with  noble  poetry.  Morris  Rosenfeld,  one  of  the 
earliest  of  the  Yiddish  poets  in  America,  achieved 
considerable  fame  by  his  “Songs  of  the  Ghetto”. 
His  works  have  been  translated  into  English, 
German,  Polish,  Roumanian  and  Bohemian.  The 
chief  theme  of  his  poetry  is  the  misery  of  the  toil¬ 
ing  masses  in  the  sweatshops  where  he  spent  a 
portion  of  his  life  as  a  tailor.  Occasionally  he 
bursts  into  a  more  joyous  song  and  voices  the 
hopes  of  his  people  for  their  national  redemption. 

Rose  Pastor  Stokes’  translation  of  his  “Songs 
of  the  Ghetto”  introduced  him  to  the  English 
reading  public,  and  upon  its  appearance  he  was  in¬ 
vited  to  give  readings  before  several  important 
American  universities.  Rosenfeld  died  in  1922. 

The  greatest  living  Yiddish  poet  is  Solomon 
Bloomgarden  (Yehoash).  The  tragedies  of  life 


176  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

are  not  the  chief  themes  of  his  poetry  as  they  are 
of  Rosenfeld’s.  He  sings  rather  of  Jewish  na¬ 
tional  hopes,  of  love  and  joy.  He  has  done  not¬ 
able  service  in  translating  Longfellow’s  “Hiawa¬ 
tha”  into  Yiddish,  and  he  has  also  made  the  first 
translation  of  the  Bible  into  Yiddish.  His 
“Gesammelte  Lieder”  (Collected  Songs)  and  “In 
Sun  un  Nebel”  (Through  Sunshine  and  Mist)  are 
his  outstanding  original  literary  creations. 

In  addition  to  these,  there  are  a  great  many 
younger  poets  who  are  molding  the  Yiddish  lan¬ 
guage  into  a  thing  of  beauty.  They  are  free  ex¬ 
perimenters,  they  are  often  daring  in  their 
thought,  and  their  poetic  gift  is  genuine.  They 
are  bound  to  exert  a  salutary  influence  on  the  cul¬ 
tural  life  of  America. 

The  Yiddish  drama  has  developed  considerably 
within  the  past  few  decades.  Its  father  was  Abra¬ 
ham  Goldfaden,  who  gave  it  some  of  its  best 
pieces.  Jacob  Gordin  introduced  into  it  the  prob¬ 
lem  play,  the  psychological  play  and  the  realistic 
drama,  and  in  general  raised  it  to  a  modern  posi¬ 
tion.  Z.  Libin  and  I.  Kobrin  have  followed  in  his 
footsteps.  Among  the  most  important  contemp¬ 
orary  Yiddish  dramatists  in  America  are  David 
Pinski,  Perez  Hirshbein,  and  Sholom  Asch,  whose 
works  have  been  translated  into  English  and  pro¬ 
duced  on  the  American  stage. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  177 

In  the  realm  of  book  production  also  the  Jew 
plays  an  important  role.  Here  as  everywhere,  he 
is  the  innovator,  the  initiator,  the  one  who  hews 
the  new  pathways  and  exploits  the  fields  hitherto 
neglected.  It  is  only  within  the  last  decade  or 
two  that  the  Jews  have  assumed  an  important  role 
in  book  publishing,  and  their  rise  has  been  facili¬ 
tated  by  the  creation  of  a  reading  public  recruited 
from  the  second  generation  of  Jews.  A  large 
number  of  new  writers  have  come  into  the  field 
and  the  dissemination  of  their  works  has  been  due 
not  only  to  the  disproportionate  number  of  Jewish 
readers  of  high-class  literature  but  also  to  the 
Jewish  publishers  ever  on  the  alert  for  promising 
youth. 

Among  these  new  Jewish  publishers  are  Alfred 
A.  Knopf,  Albert  and  Charles  Boni,  B.  W. 
Huebsch,  Horace  Liveright,  Nicholas  L.  Brown, 
Thomas  Seltzer  and  Henry  T.  Schnittkind.  To 
Alfred  A.  Knopf  belongs  the  credit  of  bringing 
out  the  works  of  writers  who  are  of  the  utmost 
importance  in  American  literature.  Joseph 
Hergesheimer  and  H.  L.  Mencken  are  both  en¬ 
rolled  under  his  Borzoi  banner.  Floyd  Dell,  Carl 
Van  Vechten  and  others  owe  the  publication  of 
their  works  to  the  indefatigable  Knopf.  A  large 
number  of  translations  from  Russian  works  have 


178  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

also  found  their  way  into  American  homes 
through  his  instrumentality. 

Two  of  the  most  daring  and  successful  ventures 
in  American  publishing  have  been  made  possible 
almost  entirely  by  Jews.  Mr.  Boni,  of  Boni  and 
Liveright,  was  instrumental  in  the  creation  of  the 
Modern  Library  series  which  has  placed  at  mod¬ 
erate  prices  the  greatest  masterpieces  of  world 
literature  in  thousands  of  American  libraries. 

A  large  number  of  Jewish  authors  have  found 
in  the  Modern  Library  the  means  for  the  publica¬ 
tion  of  their  works.  Dr.  Sigmund  Freud,  the 
psycho-analyst,  Maxwell  Bodenheimm,  John 
Cournos,  Ben  Hecht,  Anzia  Yezierska,  Ludwig 
Lewisohn,  Waldo  Frank,  Conrad  Berkovici  all 
have  done  work  for  the  house  of  Boni  and  Live- 
right. 

What  Boni  and  Liveright  have  made  possible 
for  the  more  prosperous  portion  of  the  American 
reading  public  has  been  repeated  on  a  vaster  scale 
by  E.  Haldeman-Julius.  Due  to  his  initiative, 
hundreds  of  concise  booklets,  embodying  the  es¬ 
sence  of  human  literary  efforts  since  the  days  of 
early  Greece  and  early  Judea,  have  been  made 
accessible  to  the  public.  Millions  of  copies  sold 
for  a  nominal  price  have  been  disposed  of  within 
the  space  of  a  few  years  and  countless  American 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  179 

homes  have  been  put  in  contact  with  the  finest  lit¬ 
erature. 

Nicholas  L.  Brown,  who  introduced  the  Swed¬ 
ish  writer,  Strindberg,  to  the  American  public,  is 
a  Russian  Jewish  immigrant  who  came  to  this 
country  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  He  also  made 
Panzini,  the  Italian  novelist,  known  to  America. 
His  Sea  Gull  Library,  a  series  of  books  on  belles- 
lettres  and  consisting  of  translations  of  European 
masterpieces  never  before  published  in  English, 
is  considered  a  fine  example  of  the  art  of  book¬ 
making. 

The  career  of  a  Russian  Jewish  immigrant 
achieving  a  place  of  prominence  in  the  publishing 
world  is  duplicated  by  Thomas  Seltzer,  who  came 
to  America  at  the  age  of  eleven,  cut  buttonholes, 
worked  his  way  through  the  University  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania  and  then  entered  the  publishing  business. 
A  miscellaneous  array  of  books  has  been  put  upon 
the  market  through  his  efforts.  Among  the  most 
notable  ones  have  been  the  works  of  D.  H.  Law¬ 
rence,  one  of  the  foremost  of  the  younger  British 
novelists. 

Benjamin  Huebsch  is  not  the  least  active  in  this 
group  of  Jewish  publishers.  A  native  New  Yorker, 
he  first  displayed  a  decided  bent  for  music  but 
later  turned  his  attention  to  the  art  of  printing. 
His  father,  who  had  been  a  rabbi,  had  inculcated 


180  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

in  his  son  a  love  of  learning  and  a  knowledge  of 
books,  qualifications  that  aided  him  in  the  pub¬ 
lishing  world.  The  first  authors  whose  works  he 
published  were  two  of  the  greatest  living  German 
writers,  Hauptmann  and  Suderman.  Huebsch  also 
entered  the  periodical  publishing  field,  by  founding 
the  Freeman,  a  weekly  of  exceedingly  high  liter¬ 
ary  value  and  importance. 

Among  Jewish  publishing  companies  that  have 
done  important  work  may  be  mentioned  The 
Stratford  Company.  This  company  introduced 
for  the  first  time  to  the  American  public  a  number 
of  foreign  masterpieces,  the  most  important  being 
a  novel  from  the  Japanese,  The  Heart  of  N ami- 
San,  by  Kenjiro  Tokutomi.  The  Stratford  Jour¬ 
nal,  founded  by  this  company  and  edited  by  Dr. 
Henry  T.  Schnittkind  and  Dr.  Isaac  Goldberg, 
was  instrumental  in  first  introducing  to  American 
readers  such  writers  as  Giovanni  Papini,  Knut 
Hamsun,  Jacinto  Benavente,  and  a  number  of 
other  famous  writers  of  foreign  countries. 

It  is  Brentano’s  however,  that  is  the  best  known 
among  the  Jewish  publishing  houses.  Here  the 
world-wide  perspective  of  the  Jew  becomes  mani¬ 
fest.  Brentano’s  is  practically  the  headquarters  in 
America  for  the  sale  of  European  literature,  it  is 
the  link  in  the  literary  world  between  Europe  and 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  181 

America.  With  the  increasing  years,  it  has  at¬ 
tained  a  solidity  and  stability  that  have  given  it 
a  universal  reputation. 

As  one  surveys  the  activities  of  these  Jew¬ 
ish  publishers,  one  becomes  impressed  with  the 
truth  of  Romain  Rolland’s  characterization  of 
the  Jews.  Travelling  here  and  there,  he  re¬ 
marks, — “They  carry  with  them  the  ‘pollen  of 
thought’  ”.  It  is  they  who  have  made  known 
and  are  making  known  to  the  Americans,  large 
portions  of  the  literature  and  culture  of  other 
peoples.  It  is  they  who  stand  foremost  in  the 
translation  and  dissemination  of  the  works  of 
European  authors.  They  act  the  role  of  inter¬ 
mediaries  and  interpreters  linking  nation  and  na¬ 
tion,  and  bringing  to  one  the  understanding  of 
the  other.  Retaining  the  cosmopolitanism  and 
linguistic  capacities  of  the  nomad,  they  unite  the 
dwellers  of  the  earth,  and  by  the  widening  of  the 
national  horizon  they  disperse  the  fogs  of  provin¬ 
cialism  that  hamper  the  progress  of  a  people. 


/ 


CHAPTER  X 

IN  AMERICAN  MUSIC  AND  ART 

“I  once  took  a  friend  of  mine  to  a  concert  in 
Carnegie  Hall,”  writes  Henry  T.  Finck,  the  musi¬ 
cal  critic  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post.  “He 
looked  around  at  the  audience,  scanned  their  faces 
and  then  asked  me,  ‘Where  do  the  Christians 
sit’  ?”  This  question  could  be  levelled  at  the  music 
lover  not  only  in  the  metropolis  but  also  in  the 
other  large  cities  of  the  country.  That  the  Jews 
will  support  every  musical  venture  and  encourage  . 
budding  talent  is  taken  for  granted  by  every  man¬ 
ager  of  performing  artists. 

Nor  is  the  love  of  the  race  for  music  a  newly 
born  phenomenon.  In  ancient  Israel  the  bards 
not  only  sang  but  also  played.  The  Jew  expressed 
his  emotions  through  the  harp  and  the  cymbals 
long  before  the  light  of  civilization  had  dawned 
over  Europe.  Throughout  the  centuries  the  Jew 
found  his  chief  solace  in  the  synagogue,  and  in 
its  music.  He  acquired  his  critical  capacity  and  his 
love  for  the  art  by  constant  attendance  at  the 

182 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  183 

house  of  worship,  where  the  cantor  held  forth  be¬ 
fore  a  sympathetic  audience.  Music  was  made 
part  of  the  ritual;  it  was  interwoven  into  the  very 
essence  of  his  religious  life.  Music,  the  most  sub¬ 
jective  of  all  arts,  finds  its  greatest  number  of 
practitioners  and  its  most  ardent  devotees  among 
the  Jews,  the  most  subjective  of  all  races. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  out  of  every  twelve 
musical  artists,  vocalists,  violinists  and  conductors, 
eight  are  descendants  of  the  people  of  Israel. 
Among  the  violinists  particularly  the  proportion 
is  overwhelming.  The  most  remarkable  thing 
about  this  dominion  of  the  musical  world  by  tal¬ 
ented  Jews  is  that  the  place  of  origin  of  most  of 
these  Jewish  musicians  is  in  Eastern  Europe. 

Mischa  Elman  is,  perhaps,  the  master  of  them 
all.  Born  in  a  Russian  Ghetto,  thirty  years  ago, 
he  displayed  his  genius  at  the  early  age  of  four. 
He  attracted  the  attention  of  the  great  music 
teachers  of  Europe  and  soon  Leopold  Auer,  the 
spiritual  father  of  many  virtuosos,  took  him  under 
his  wing.  Permission  was  secured  from  the  Czar 
that  the  young  Mischa  be  allowed  to  attend  the 
Petrograd  Conservatory.  Here  he  perfected  his 
art  and  in  1904  he  made  his  debut.  Since  then  he 
has  covered  the  whole  world  in  the  course  of  his 
musical  peregrinations.  Countless  thousands 
throughout  the  civilized  globe  have  paid  tribute 


184  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

to  this  outstanding  product  of  a  dismal  poverty- 
stricken  town  in  the  Russian  Ghetto. 

Efrem  Zimbalist  also  is  a  product  of  the  Rus¬ 
sian  Ghetto  and  is  the  husband  of  Alma  Gluck, 
the  well  known  operatic  singer.  He  is  a  violinist 
of  the  first  rank.  Nevertheless  he  had  sufficient 
time  to  develop  scholarly  capacities.  He  is  the 
author  of  a  book  on  the  theory  and  practice  of 
violin  playing  and  an  authority  on  the  history  of 
music. 

Jascha  Heifetz  is  still  in  his  early  twenties,  yet 
he  has  been  before  the  public  for  more  than  a 
decade.  He  attained  national  prominence  at  the 
age  of  ten  by  his  remarkable  playing.  There  are 
a  legion  of  other  virtuosi.  David  Hochstein,  one 
of  the  most  promising  of  the  younger  violinists, 
was  killed  by  a  German  bullet  while  fighting  in  the 
Argonne.  Fritz  Kreisler,  Max  Bendix,  Yoscha 
Seidel,  Leo  Ornstein,  Max  Rosen,  Mitmitzky,  are 
but  a  few  of  the  many  who  entertain  and  move 
multitudes  of  music  lovers,  and  who  have  helped 
to  establish  what  Henry  Finck  calls  “the  predomi¬ 
nance  of  Jews  in  the  musical  world.” 

Leo  Ornstein,  born  in  Russia  in  1895,  is  one  of 
the  more  brilliant  of  the  group  of  Jewish  pianists. 
He  is  an  experimenter  in  new  forms  of  musical  art, 
an  exponent  of  the  modern  futuristic  movement. 
Among  the  music-loving  public  ever  alert  for  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  185 

novel  and  unusual  he  has  created  for  himself  a 
substantial  reputation. 

Writing,  in  impressionistic  style,  of  Ornstein’s 
music,  in  his  brilliant  work  “Our  America,” 
Waldo  Frank  says:  “It  is  the  full  throated  cry  of 
the  young  Jew  in  the  young  world.  Background 
of  the  old  passion  of  storm  and  repression.  But 
upon  it  breaks  of  fire,  interstices  of  light, 
America’s  release.  The  weight  of  sorrow  of  the 
Jew  like  a  loading  atmosphere  about  him.  And 
the  Jew’s  intricate  response,  reasoning  and  wail¬ 
ing.  The  birth  of  faith,  the  tidal  energy  in  faith. 
New  hope,  new  deed,  new  life.  An  answer  to  the 
lamentation  of  the  Jewish  fate  in  Ornstein’s  music; 
a  sort  of  angry  joy,  lust  of  a  new  conquest,  Hebrew 
the  seed,  American  the  fruit.” 

Paul  Rosenfeld,  born  in  New  York  in  1890,  is 
one  of  the  new  generation  of  musical  critics.  It 
was  he  who  first  introduced  Ornstein  to  America. 
He  has  written  voluminously  on  the  subject  of 
musical  criticism.  His  contributions  have  appeared 
in  the  New  Republic ,  The  Dial,  and  other  maga¬ 
zines  of  an  equally  high  calibre. 

Jews  are  performers,  conductors,  managers  and 
constitute  a  large  proportion  of  the  audiences. 
Among  orchestra  leaders,  the  Jew  is  in  the  front 
rank.  There  is  Wille  Mengelburg,  the  great  com¬ 
poser  from  Holland  who  is  said  to  be  so  orthodox 


1 86  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

in  his  religious  views  that  he  does  not  play  on 
Saturday.  There  is  Arthur  Bodzansky  and  Joseph 
Stransky.  Walter  Damrosch  is  at  the  head  of  the 
New  York  Symphony,  while  Leopold  Stokowski 
is  head  of  the  Philadelphia  Symphony.  Nicolai 
Sokoloff  is  Cleveland’s  banner  bearer  and  Fred¬ 
erick  Stock  performs  the  same  role  for  Chicago. 
In  Choral  Society  work  Kurt  Schindler,  the  head 
of  the  Schola  Cantorum,  is  pre-eminent.  To  take 
away  the  Jews  from  the  musical  life  would  leave 
most  of  the  big  orchestras  in  America  leaderless. 

Among  pianists  also,  the  Jews  do  not  lag  be¬ 
hind.  They  fill  the  concert  halls  as  do  their  col¬ 
leagues  with  their  violins.  Joseph  Hoffman  and 
Leopold  Godowsky  are  perhaps  the  best  known  of 
the  pianists  performing  in  America.  There  are 
Joseph  Lhevinne,  Alfred  Marovitch,  Ignatz 
Friedman  and  a  host  of  minor  luminaries  in  the 
musical  firmament. 

Facilities  for  the  improvement  of  the  musical 
taste  of  the  masses  have  more  than  once  been 
created  under  the  inspiration  and  with  the  aid  of 
Jewish  men  and  women.  The  Lewisohn  Stadium, 
attached  to  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
was  created  as  a  result  of  the  benefaction  of  the 
great  philanthropist,  Adolph  Lewisohn.  Here, 
during  the  summer  months  of  the  past  few  years, 
the  best  performing  artists  in  the  country  have 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  187 

displayed  their  talent  before  admiring  audiences 
ranging  from  8,000  to  15,000.  The  prices  for 
admission  here  are  far  below  commensurate  per¬ 
formances  given  in  the  ordinary  concert  halls.  A 
recent  editorial  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post 
says : 

With  Sunday  evening’s  concert  on  the  Mall  in  Central 
Park,  will  end  what  is  probably  the  best  season  this  coun¬ 
try  has  ever  had  of  free  orchestral  music.  Sixty  concerts 
have  been  given  by  the  Goldman  Band  in  the  past  twelve 
weeks,  and  they  have  been  free  not  only  to  their  hearers 
but  to  the  taxpayers.  This  has  been  the  sixth  season  of  the 
Goldman  Band  Concerts,  but  the  first  in  a  city  park. 
Before  this  year  the  concerts  were  given  on  the  Green  at 
Columbia  University.  A  committee  of  nearly  100  public 
spirited  citizens  with  Mrs.  Daniel  Guggenheim  as  Chair¬ 
man  have  made  these  concerts  possible.  Through  the  good 
offices  of  Philip  Berolzheimer,  City  Chamberlain,  accom¬ 
modation  in  Central  Park  was  secured  when  building  ex¬ 
pansion  made  the  Columbia  grounds  no  longer  available. 
Mr.  Elkan  Naurrtburg  is  now  financing  the  construction 
of  a  new  bandstand  on  the  Mall  as  a  present  to  the  City. 
To  Edwin  Franko  Goldman,  the  originator  of  free  con¬ 
certs  and  conductor  of  the  band  on  the  Mall,  more  than  a 
million  people  are  indebted  for  a  summer  of  pleasure  and 
instruction. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  every  single  name 
mentioned  in  the  above  editorial  is  Jewish. 

This  zeal  for  music  does  not  cease  with  the 
passing  of  the  summer.  In  winter  there  are  also 


i88  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

free  concerts.  For  a  number  of  years  under  the 
auspices  of  an  energetic  young  Jew,  Charles  D. 
Isaacson,  a  number  of  free  concerts  have  been 
given.  First  in  conjunction  with  the  New  York 
Globe y  then  with  the  Evening  Mail ,  Mr.  Isaac¬ 
son  has  preached  the  gospel  of  a  refined  musical 
taste  to  countless  thousands  in  innumerable  places. 

Nor  do  the  efforts  for  the  elevation  of  the  level 
of  musical  and  artistic  sensibilities  of  the  people 
stop  here.  Perhaps  the  most  effective  instruments 
in  that  direction  have  been  created  in  the  shape  of 
the  new  type  of  motion  picture  houses  which  have 
sprung  up  within  recent  years.  These  theatres, 
like  the  Rialto  and  the  Rivoli  in  New  York,  com¬ 
bine  within  themselves  the  function  of  opera 
house,  concert  hall  and  moving  picture  theatre. 
Attached  to  them  is  a  well  drilled  orchestra  of 
sixty  to  seventy  pieces.  Operatic  selections  and 
ballet  performances  also  form  part  of  the  pro¬ 
gram. 

This  type  of  theatre  has  been  originated  by  S.  L. 
Rothapfel  and  Hugo  Riesenfeld,  and  the  extent  of 
their  value  may  be  gauged  from  the  fact  that  Eng¬ 
land  and  the  Continent  are  beginning  to  follow 
suit. 

Opera  in  America  was  considerably  improved 
by  a  Jew,  Oscar  Hammerstein.  Born  in  Berlin  in 
1848,  he  emigrated  to  America  at  the  early  age  of 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  189 

fifteen.  Like  Samuel  Gompers  he  began  his  career 
in  the  new  country  by  becoming  a  cigar  maker. 
After  working  at  that  trade  for  several  years  he 
turned  to  journalism  and  became  the  editor  of  the 
United  States  Tobacco  Journal.  His  inventive 
faculty  manifested  itself  in  the  creation  of  cigar 
making  machinery  which  has,  to  a  certain  degree, 
revolutionized  the  industry.  Later  he  returned 
his  attention  to  the  theatrical  and  operatic  world. 
He  built  and  managed  a  number  of  New  York 
theatres,  such  as  the  Criterion,  the  Belasco,  the 
Olympia.  Particularly  noticeable,  however,  was 
his  Manhattan  Opera  House  where  some  of  the 
best  opera  ever  seen  in  America  was  performed. 
Since  his  day  art  has  made  gigantic  strides  and 
with  the  co-operation  of  Otto  Kahn,  New  York 
has  become  the  operatic  center  of  the  world. 

Nevertheless,  American  Opera  has  as  yet  little 
native  color  and  originality.  It  subsists  largely  on 
the  importations  from  abroad,  importations  of 
both  artists  and  pieces.  The  movement  for  the 
creation  of  a  native  American  opera  is  still  in  its 
infancy,  but  here  the  work  of  another  Jew,  Max 
Rabinoff,  is  making  strides.  At  Stony  Point,  New 
York,  where  the  historic  battle  for  American 
political  independence  was  fought,  there  is  being 
created  an  institution  that  may  ultimately  achieve 
for  America  its  operatic  independence.  Ameri- 


igo  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

can  artists,  American  musicians,  American  com¬ 
posers  are  being  mobilized  and  trained  under  the 
auspices  of  Rabinoff  for  that  purpose. 

There  are  other  Jews  who  have  attained  promi¬ 
nence  in  the  operatic  world.  There  are  the  two 
Aborns,  Milton  and  Sargent,  who  have  produced 
opera  for  a  number  of  years  in  America.  There 
is  Erich  Korngold,  a  twenty-five  year  old  Viennese 
Jew  now  resident  in  America  who  has  already  seen 
“Die  Todte  Stadt,”  an  opera  of  his,  produced 
several  years  ago  on  the  stage  and  who,  if  his  first 
work  is  any  augury,  will  create  lasting  values  for 
American  Opera. 

Among  composers  Rubin  Goldmark  has  a  high 
place.  Ernest  Bloch  has  a  number  of  musical 
works  to  his  credit.  Among  vocalists  of  the 
highest  order  are  Rosa  Raisa  and  her  husband, 
Giacomo  Rimini.  Sophie  Breslau  and  Alma 
Gluck  represent  Jewish  femininity  upon  the 
American  operatic  stage  and  have  charmed  multi¬ 
tudes  in  the  course  of  their  careers. 

Ever  alive  to  the  needs  of  the  general  public,  the 
Jew  has  been  instrumental  in  catering  to  popular 
demands.  The  songs  that  the  millions  hum  and 
sing  and  that  catch  the  fancy  of  the  multitudes 
from  Maine  to  California  are  in  many  cases  the 
productions  of  young  Jews.  With  a  catchy 
melody,  a  happy  phrase,  a  fetching  tune  they  set 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  191 

all  America  agog  for  a  short  period.  Irving  Ber¬ 
lin  has  risen  to  fame  and  fortune  on  the  tide  of 
popular  approval.  Leo  Feist,  Jerome  D.  Kern, 
Albert  Von  Tilzer,  Shapiro  and  Bernstein,  are 
names  known  to  the  members  of  every  household 
that  possesses  a  piano. 

In  a  sphere  of  art  in  which  so  many  Jewish  per¬ 
formers  appear,  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  the 
organization  and  management  should  be  largely 
in  Jewish  hands.  Perhaps  the  most  successful  and 
dynamic  administrator  is  Solomon  Hurok,  who 
like  many  other  Jews,  rose  from  the  humblest  cir¬ 
cumstances  to  a  dominating  role  in  the  world  of 
music.  Born  thirty-five  years  ago  in  the  town  of 
Polgar  in  Russia,  he  came  to  America  at  the  age 
of  fifteen.  He  commenced  his  career  in  the  new 
land  by  peddling  packets  of  pins  and  needles  in  the 
Ghetto  of  New  York.  This  occupation  proving 
neither  congenial  nor  remunerative,  he  decided  to 
ascend  the  economic  scale.  He  became  a  bottle 
washer  in  a  cellar  where  he  worked  twelve  to  four¬ 
teen  hours  each  day.  Then  he  drifted  to  a  spring 
bed  factory.  Here  his  labor  brought  the  munifi¬ 
cent  return  of  three  dollars  per  week.  Finally  he 
became  manager  of  an  automobile  accessory  com¬ 
pany  where  for  the  first  time  he  met  the  violinist 
Efrem  Zimbalist  who  interested  him  in  musical 
management. 


192  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Since  then,  he  has  become  one  of  the  most  suc¬ 
cessful  managers  of  musical  and  terpsichorean 
celebrities  in  America.  Pavlowa  and  her  Ballet 
Russe,  Schuman-Heink,  the  Russian  Grand  Opera 
Company,  Isadora  Duncan,  the  dancer,  Feodor 
Chaliapin  and  a  host  of  other  internationally 
known  artists  have  performed  under  the  auspices 
of  the  tireless  Hurok. 

In  the  plastic  arts  there  is  a  large  Jewish  repre¬ 
sentation.  The  biblical  injunction  against  the 
making  of  graven  images  did  not  tend  to  atrophy 
the  artistic  powers  of  the  Jews.  On  the  contrary, 
when  a  departure  from  the  traditional  attitude 
was  effected,  they  brought  forth  a  host  of  unex¬ 
pected  creations.  There  is  none  in  America  to 
vie  with  such  Jewish  painters  as  Israels  of  Hol¬ 
land,  or  with  such  sculptors  as  Antokolsky  of 
Russia.  Nevertheless  there  has  been  growing 
within  the  past  few  decades  a  corps  of  Jewish  men 
of  talent  who  are  enriching  the  art  treasures  of 
contemporary  America. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  and  the  greatest  of  the 
Jewish  sculptors  in  America  was  Sir  Moses  Eze¬ 
kiel.  Born  in  Richmond  in  1844,  he  served  as  a 
soldier  in  the  Confederate  army.  After  hostilities 
had  ended  he  repaired  to  Berlin  where  he  entered 
the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  The  following  year 
the  Franco-Prussian  war  broke  out,  and  Ezekiel 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  193 

utilized  this  opportunity  to  become  the  war  cor¬ 
respondent  of  the  New  York  Herald.  Later  he 
repaired  to  Rome  where  he  seriously  devoted  him¬ 
self  to  his  cherished  art.  Here  he  won  immortal 
fame  and  the  friendship  of  the  royal  family  of 
Italy.  His  first  great  work  was  the  execution  of 
statuary  commemorating  religious  liberty  in  the 
United  States.  This,  perhaps  his  greatest  master¬ 
piece,  was  unveiled  at  the  Philadelphia  Centennial 
Exhibition  in  1876.  Later  he  executed  a  bronze 
statue  of  Jefferson,  who  had  always  been  his  fav¬ 
orite  hero.  This  statue  of  Jefferson  was  modelled 
at  the  express  request  of  the  citizens  of  Louis¬ 
ville,  Kentucky.  A  replica  of  this  work  was  later 
placed  at  the  front  entrance  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  which  was  founded  by  the  greatest  of 
American  democrats.  He  fashioned  a  number  of 
other  pieces  of  sculpture,  his  famous  bust  of  the 
musician  Liszt  being  among  them.  After  his 
death  his  remains,  brought  back  to  America,  were 
interred  in  the  Arlington  National  Cemetery. 
This  was  a  signal  distinction,  indeed,  for  he  was 
one  of  the  very  few  civilians  ever  thus  honored. 

There  are  a  number  of  others.  Perhaps  the 
best  known  American  sculptors  today  are  Jo 
Davidson  and  Jacob  Epstein.  Davidson  has  to  his 
credit  the  busts  of  the  leading  literary  and  politi¬ 
cal  lights  of  the  day.  Anatole  France  and  Ignace 


194  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Paderewski  have,  among  others,  sat  for  him.  He 
has  completed  the  task  of  commemorating  the 
world  war  in  sculpture.  His  great  statue  to  the 
American  soldiers  has  recently  been  unveiled  in  the 
cemetery  of  Surennes,  France. 

Jacob  Epstein,  who  now  lives  in  England,  was 
born  in  the  East  Side  of  New  York.  His  figure  of 
Christ  was  the  sensation  of  the  artistic  world, 
arousing  a  flood  of  comment  favorable  and  ad¬ 
verse.  Victor  D.  Brenner  was  the  designer  of 
the  Lincoln  penny.  Among  other  sculptors  may 
be  named  Jules  Leon  Butensky,  Ephram  Kaiser, 
and  Alexandre  Zeitlin. 

Among  the  painters  the  Jewish  representation 
is  large,  including  such  men  as  Hugo  Ballin,  A.  S. 
Baylinson,  Secretary  of  the  Independent  Artists 
Association,  Horace  Brodzky,  William  Auerbach 
Levy,  William  Meirowitz,  Leo  Mielziner,  Jerome 
Myles,  Abraham  Walkowitz  and  John  Wenger. 
Mr.  Wenger  has  done  exceptional  work  in  the 
realm  of  stage  settings  and  is  among  the  most 
active  of  those  contributing  to  the  aesthetic  im¬ 
provement  of  the  Broadway  productions.  A  num¬ 
ber  of  these  artists  belong  to  the  so-called  insur¬ 
gent  wing  and  are  continually  experimenting  in 
the  new  forms  of  artistic  creations. 

But  the  children  of  Israel  are  not  only  creative, 
they  are  also  critical.  The  greatest  American 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  195 

authority  on  Italian  art  is  a  Russian  Jew,  Bern- 
hard  Berensohn.  George  Heilman  and  Louis 
Weinberg  have  written  extensively  on  various 
phases  of  art  criticism.  A  most  dynamic  figure 
in  the  world  of  American  art  is  Alfred  Streglitz, 
who  while  not  a  creative  artist  himself,  has  at  his 
studio,  the  famous  “291”  Fifth  Avenue,  gathered 
about  himself  the  most  promising  painters  of  the 
day.  To  them  he  has  extended  the  aid  and  the 
sympathy  so  necessary  to  their  work.  His  studio 
has  served  as  the  place  where  struggling  and 
hitherto  unrecognized  painters  first  exhibited  their 
work  to  a  critical  public. 

Art  dealing  has  always  been,  to  a  certain  extent, 
in  Jewish  hands.  Duveen’s  is  perhaps  the  largest 
of  the  international  houses  dealing  in  art.  Rosen- 
bach’s  of  Philadelphia  has  been  instrumental  in 
securing  for  American  art  a  number  of  priceless 
treasures  which  had  hitherto  found  a  place  of  rest 
in  London.  Louis  W.  Ehrich  is  another  who  is 
widely  known  among  the  art  dealers.  Among 
cartoonists  may  be  found  “Rube”  Goldberg,  the 
inexhaustible  fountain  of  humor  and  satire,  Harry 
Hershfield,  Bert  Levy,  Maurice  Becker,  Hy 
Mayers  and  a  number  of  others. 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN  SCIENCE  AND  THE  PROFESSIONS 

The  modern  world  of  science  is  not  a  new  thing 
for  the  Jew;  he  enters  it  with  a  long  established 
tradition  dating  from  the  time  when  he  in  com¬ 
pany  with  the  Arab  stood  in  the  forefront  of  medi¬ 
aeval  civilization.  “The  Hebrew  works  of  mediae¬ 
val  antiquity,”  writes  Scott  in  the  third  volume  of 
his  “History  of  the  Moorish  Empire  in  Europe”, 
“contain  the  germs  of  scientific  discoveries  which 
modern  pride  is  pleased  to  designate  as  of  com¬ 
parative  recent  origin.  In  the  Zohar,  .  .  .  the 
globular  form  of  the  earth,  its  diurnal  revolution 
on  its  axis,  the  varying  phases  of  that  planet,  the 
difference  in  the  length  of  day  and  night  at  the 
equator  and  the  poles,  .  .  .  are  all  described  with 
an  accuracy  which  is  wonderful  when  the  general 
ignorance  of  the  epoch  during  which  these  opin¬ 
ions,  so  far  in  advance  of  the  time,  were  promul¬ 
gated,  is  remembered.  In  the  thirteenth  century 
Jedediah-ben-Abraham,  of  Beziers,  advanced  the 
hypothesis  that  all  objects  impelled  in  opposite 
directions,  and  undisturbed  by  other  forces,  move 

196 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  197 

in  straight  lines, — the  essential  element  of  one  of 
the  laws  now  universally  recognized  as  governing 
the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Solomon- 
ben-Virga,  a  Spanish  refugee,  in  his  historical 
treatise,  Sebeth-Jehuda,  .  .  .  states  that  the 
earth,  equally  attracted  by  the  surrounding  stars, 
remains  suspended  in  the  midst  of  space,  an  un¬ 
mistakable  conception  of  the  principle  of  gravity 
which  antedates  its  republication  in  Europe  by 
more  than  a  hundred  years.  The  philosophical 
truths  just  enumerated,  which  anticipate  the  im¬ 
portant  discoveries  of  Boerhaave,  Lavater, 
Galileo,  Kepler,  and  Newton,  afford  a  suggestive 
idea  of  the  attainments  of  the  rabbis,  the  accuracy 
of  their  reasoning,  and  the  extent  and  profundity 
of  their  scientific  knowledge.” 

In  medicine  particularly  has  the  Jew  created 
for  himself  a  place  of  prominence,  continuing  the 
reputation  he  achieved  for  himself  in  the  mediae¬ 
val  ages,  when  sons  of  the  covenant  ministered 
to  the  physical  ailments  of  reigning  sovereigns  and 
popes.  Dr.  Simon  Flexner  stands  at  the  directing 
helm  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation.  Dr.  Harry 
Plotz  has  discovered  a  combative  factor  against 
the  ravages  of  typhus.  Dr.  Casimir  Funk  has 
elaborated  the  theory  of  vitamines,  which  is  the 
basis  of  modern  dietetics.  Dr.  Abraham  Jacobi 
stood  at  the  forefront  of  the  American  medical 


198  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

profession  for  about  half  a  century.  The  famous 
Shick  test  is  the  discovery  of  a  Jew.  Interarvin, 
the  artificial  fat  used  as  a  remedy  for  diabetes, 
is  the  work  of  Dr.  Abraham  Kahn,  a  Russian 
Jewish  immigrant.  A  device  against  tetanus  and 
a  new  method  for  treating  ailments  of  the 
pharynx  are  credited  to  Dr.  Samuel  Meltzer.  Dr. 
Maurice  Fishberg  is  the  editor  of  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association,  a  voluminous 
writer  on  all  phases  of  medicine  and  a  co-author 
of  the  “Handbook  of  Therapy.”  T.  B.  Sachs  is 
president  of  the  National  Association  for  the 
Study  and  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis.  Dr.  Albert 
Abrams  has  discovered  the  electronic  rays  which 
have  been  hailed  by  his  followers  as  the  most  re¬ 
markable  cure  of  recent  years.  Dr.  Abraham  A. 
Brill  is  one  of  the  leading  psycho-analysts  of 
America  and  has  applied  the  methods  of  Dr.  Sig¬ 
mund  Freud  of  Vienna  to  mental  ailments.  Dr. 
Harry  Friedenwald  is  an  eye  specialist  of  note 
connected  with  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

The  Rockefeller  Institute  for  Medical  Re¬ 
search  has  within  the  past  years  become  one  of 
the  most  potent  factors  for  the  alleviation  of 
human  suffering.  Of  the  six  or  seven  men  who 
direct  its  destinies  and  who  are  known  wherever 
the  study  of  medicine  is  pursued,  three  are  of  the 
Jewish  race.  The  guiding  genius  is  Dr.  Simon 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  199 

Flexner,  generally  recognized  as  the  world’s 
greatest  pathologist.  Associated  with  him  is  Pro¬ 
fessor  Jacques  Loeb.  The  latter  has  been  the 
occupant  of  the  Chair  of  Physiology  at  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Chicago.  Later  he  was  called  to  the 
same  position  in  the  University  of  California. 
Since  1910  he  has  been  the  head  of  the  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Experimental  Biology  of  the  Institute. 
Here  most  of  his  discoveries  have  been  made.  He 
has  been  the  recipient  of  numerous  honorary  de¬ 
grees  here  and  abroad.  He  is  a  member  of  the 
scientific  and  philosophic  academies  and  societies 
of  most  of  the  countries  of  Europe.  For  years  he 
has  been  recognized  as  the  world’s  greatest  living 
biologist,  and  despite  his  sixty  odd  years  is  doing 
valuable  work  on  behalf  of  the  sacred  cause  of 
science.  Dr.  Louis  Levine  is  also  affiliated  with 
the  same  institution  and  for  a  number  of  years  has 
been  the  head  of  its  Department  of  Chemistry. 

Professor  Lafayette  B.  Mendel  is  professor  of 
Physiological  Chemistry  at  Yale  University.  He 
was  made  a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences  for  his  researches  in  the  chemistry  of 
digestion,  metabolism  and  nutrition.  He  has  also 
done  extensive  work  in  the  investigation  of  vita- 
mines  and  their  relationship  to  the  human  body. 
Dr.  Joseph  Goldberger  of  the  United  States 
Health  Service  has  done  pioneer  work  in  the  in- 


200  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

vestigation  of  pellagra  which  is  prevalent  in  the 
southern  sections  of  the  country.  Much  of  what  is 
known  today  about  this  loathsome  disease  has  been 
discovered  as  the  result  of  Dr.  Goldberger’s  re¬ 
searches.  Professor  Milton  Rosenau,  Professor 
of  Preventive  Medicine  at  Harvard,  is  an  author¬ 
ity  on  bacteriology  and  public  health,  while  Dr. 
Emanuel  Libman  is  recognized  to  be  the  best 
diagnostician  in  New  York  City,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Dr.  Evan  Evans. 

The  second  generation  of  young  Jews  and  Jew¬ 
esses  have  furnished  a  disproportionate  number  of 
the  school  teachers  in  the  larger  cities  of  the  coun¬ 
try.  Despite  the  low  remuneration  in  the  profes¬ 
sion  the  number  is  continually  increasing.  The 
vast  majority  of  course  remain  as  teachers,  but  a 
more  active  minority  enters  the  profession  for  the 
large  amount  of  leisure  and  the  opportunities  ob¬ 
tainable  for  further  study.  In  New  York  City 
the  two  main  institutions  for  the  preparation  of 
teachers  for  the  public  schools,  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York  and  Hunter  College,  have  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  Jewish  students. 

Commenting  on  a  recent  examination  for  public 
school  teachers,  the  New  York  Sun  remarked  ed¬ 
itorially  that  “the  majority  of  more  than  good 
names  on  the  list  are  Jewish  and  more  especially 
of  those  receiving  the  highest  mark  for  proficiency 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  201 

in  the  examinations.”  The  first  woman  to  be  ap¬ 
pointed  teacher  in  the  Indian  schools  was  Miss 
Ray  Maslon,  who  ranked  first  in  the  examination 
given  by  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs. 

Though  the  Jews  encounter  some  difficulty  in 
the  securing  of  instructorships  and  professorships 
in  the  colleges  and  universities,  noticeable  prog¬ 
ress  has  been  made  despite  all  handicaps.  A  Jew¬ 
ish  instructor  or  professor  usually  must  be  much 
better  than  his  non-Jewish  rival  to  secure  a  posi¬ 
tion.  Columbia,  Yale  and  Harvard  have  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  the  race,  while  a  larger  number  of 
Jews  are  found  in  various  academic  positions  in 
a  host  of  other  universities,  from  Ann  Arbor  to 
George  Washington  University. 

A  young  Russian  Jew,  Henry  M.  Sheffer,  is  a 
lecturer  on  philosophy  at  Harvard,  while  another 
Russian  Jew,  Isidore  Levin,  was  one  of  the  young¬ 
est  men  appointed  to  a  university  professorship. 
At  present  Professor  Levin  is  a  member  of  the 
Faculty  of  Law  at  the  University  of  Detroit. 

Professor  Taussig,  the  leading  American  au¬ 
thority  on  the  tariff,  occupies  the  Chair  of  Econ¬ 
omics  at  Harvard.  Solomon  Blum,  Edwin  R.  A. 
Seligman,  and  Jacob  Hollander,  are  also  authori¬ 
ties  upon  economics.  Professor  Seligman,  profes¬ 
sor  at  Columbia,  is  a  member  of  the  famous  Selig¬ 
man  family  of  New  York,  and  is  the  author  of  the 


202  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

“Principles  of  Economics,”  “Economic  Interpre¬ 
tation  of  History,”  and  a  number  of  other  works 
on  economic  problems.  Professor  Isaac  A.  Hour- 
wich,  formerly  connected  with  the  faculty  of  Chi¬ 
cago  University,  is  author  of  the  brilliant  volume 
“Labor  and  Immigration.” 

One  of  America’s  leading  physicists  is  Professor 
Albert  Michelson,  President  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Science  and  winner  of  the  Nobel  prize 
for  physics  in  1907.  Born  in  Germany  in  1852, 
he  came  to  America  as  a  child  and  received  his 
preliminary  education  in  the  New  York  Public 
Schools.  In  1873  he  was  appointed  to  the  United 
States  Naval  Academy  as  a  midshipman.  After 
his  graduation  he  was  retained  as  an  instructor 
of  physics  and  chemistry.  The  University  of 
Chicago  then  called  him  to  its  service.  Michael- 
son  has  achieved  a  remarkable  degree  of  accuracy 
in  his  measurements.  He  has  applied  the  methods 
of  light  interference  to  numerous  delicate  phys¬ 
ical  measurements  of  lengths  and  angles.  He  de¬ 
termined  the  standards  of  lengths  used  by  the 
government  of  France  and  measured  the  gigantic 
star  Betelgeuse.  In  1915,  by  utilizing  his  methods 
of  accurate  measurements,  he  ruled  120,000  per¬ 
fectly  straight  and  parallel  lines  on  a  piece  of 
metal  six  by  three  inches. 

Two  of  the  leading  American  anthropologists 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  203 

are  Professors  Goldenweiser  and  Boaz,  both  of 
whom  have  done  pioneer  work  in  the  discrediting 
of  the  theory  of  superior  races.  Among  psycholo¬ 
gists,  Professor  Joseph  Jastrow,  Dr.  Abraham  A. 
Brill,  and  Boris  Sidis  are  pre-eminent.  Dr.  Brill 
is  perhaps  the  foremost  American  psycho-analyst, 
while  Boris  Sidis  was  an  authority  on  abnormal 
psychology.  The  late  Professor  Abraham  Jas¬ 
trow  was  an  Orientalist  and  the  greatest  American 
authority  on  Babylonian  civilization.  Professor 
Richard  Gottheil  is  the  occupant  of  the  Chair  of 
Oriental  Studies  at  Columbia  University. 

Professor  Julius  Drachsler,  formerly  connected 
with  Smith  College,  now  with  the  College  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  is  an  authority  on  sociology 
and  the  author  of  “Assimilation  and  Democracy.” 
Harold  Jacoby  is  professor  of  astronomy  at 
Columbia  University,  while  Jacob  Salwyn  Shapiro 
is  the  author  of  a  widely  read  text  on  modern 
history  and  occupies  the  Chair  of  History  at  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

Among  American  authorities  on  philosophy 
there  is  a  liberal  representation  of  Jews,  the  most 
brilliant  among  them  being  Professor  Morris  R. 
Cohen  of  the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York 
and  Horace  Meyer  Kallen,  formerly  connected 
with  the  University  of  Wisconsin  and  now  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  staff  of  the  New  School  of  Social 


204  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Research.  Professor  Kallen  is  the  author  of  a 
number  of  books  on  philosophic  and  political  sub¬ 
jects,  among  them  being  “James  and  Bergson,” 
“The  League  of  Nations,  Today  and  Tomorrow,” 
“Zionism  and  World  Politics.”  Leo  Weiner  is 
professor  of  Slavonic  languages  at  Harvard,  be¬ 
sides  being  an  authoritative  writer  on  anthro¬ 
pology  and  kindred  subjects. 

Professor  Leo  Sharfman  has  written  an  author¬ 
itative  treatise  on  American  railways  while  Mr. 
Zon  has  done  much  to  enrich  our  knowledge  of 
the  timber  resources  of  the  world.  “The  World’s 
Sugar  Production  and  Consumption,”  the  best  ex¬ 
position  of  the  international  sugar  industry,  is  the 
work  of  Maurice  Jacobson.  Dr.  I.  M.  Rubinow’s 
“Social  Insurance”  is  an  important  contribution 
to  the  literature  on  social  improvement.  Elisha 
Friedman  is  the  author  of  a  number  of  volumes 
on  international  reconstruction  and  kindred  sub¬ 
jects. 

The  temperament  of  the  Jew  is  not  simply  ar¬ 
tistic.  Jewish  scientists  have  contributed  liberally 
to  the  enrichment  of  learning.  The  calculating 
mind  of  the  Jew,  raised  to  a  higher  cultural  level, 
becomes  creative  in  a  most  prolific  fashion  in 
every  branch  of  scientific  knowledge. 

The  greatest  Jewish  inventor  of  his  day  was 
Charles  Proteus  Steinmetz.  Born  in  Breslau  fifty- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  205 

seven  years  ago,  he  studied  in  the  universities  of 
the  fatherland  until  he  was  expelled  for  his  radical 
opinions.  From  1893  he  was  consulting  engineer 
of  the  General  Electric  Company.  He  was  the 
wizard  of  the  electrical  world  and  besides  was 
recognized  as  a  mathematician  and  a  philosopher. 

Emil  Berliner  is  the  inventor  of  the  telephone 
transmitter,  the  disc  gramophone  record  and  a 
host  of  other  devices.  In  conjunction  with  his 
son,  Henry,  who  is  twenty-six  years  of  age,  he  has 
invented  the  helicopter,  a  flying  machine  that  rises 
perpendicularly,  dispensing  with  the  need  of 
trundling  along  the  ground. 

It  is  in  radio,  however,  that  one  finds  most 
easily  a  number  of  Jews  of  importance.  The  Vice- 
President  and  the  General  Manager  of  the  Radio 
Corporation  of  America,  the  combination  of  the 
American  Radio  Corporation  and  the  Marconi 
Company,  is  a  young  Russian  Jew,  thirty-two 
years  of  age,  David  Sarnoff.  The  career  of 
Sarnoff  is  reminiscent  of  an  Alger  story  book. 
Brought  over  as  a  child  by  his  parents  fleeing  from 
the  scourge  of  the  Czar,  he  sold  Yiddish  papers 
on  the  streets  of  the  New  York  Ghetto.  Together, 
with  the  remuneration  obtained  by  singing  in  the 
choir  of  a  synagogue,  he  managed  to  keep  body 
and  soul  together.  Later  he  became  a  messenger 
boy  for  a  telegraph  company.  Discharged  for  ab- 


206  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

senting  himself  during  a  Jewish  religious  festival, 
he  secured  a  position  as  a  radio  operator.  By  dint 
of  hard  study  in  leisure  hours  he  became  indis¬ 
pensable  to  his  employers  and  soon  rose  to  be  the 
directing  genius  of  the  entire  organization  and 
has  among  other  things  given  a  position  to  the 
man  who  discharged  him  from  his  messenger  boy 
duties.  Sarnoff  has  perfected  an  instrument  for 
the  sending  of  radio  messages  from  moving  trains. 
Some  years  ago,  a  delegation  of  Russian  Engineers 
came  to  the  American  Radio  Corporation  for  a 
demonstration  of  this  new  invention.  Sarnoff 
consulted  with  the  delegation  on  a  moving  train, 
and  dispatched  a  message  for  the  benefit  of  the 
visitors.  The  message  ran,  “If  the  Russian  Gov¬ 
ernment  had  not  driven  Jews  from  its  borders, 
Russian  Engineers  would  not  have  been  compelled 
to  come  to  America  to  learn  of  this  new  inven¬ 
tion.” 

Fritz  Lowenstein  is  the  inventor  of  the  famous 
wireless  switch  wave.  He  has  perfected  numer¬ 
ous  devices  which  have  been  adopted  by  the  navy. 
During  the  course  of  his  adventurous  career,  he 
became  the  partner  of  Niklas  Tesla,  the  great  en¬ 
gineer,  and  helped  the  latter  in  the  materializa¬ 
tion  of  his  plans. 

Joseph  R.  Freed,  still  in  his  twenties,  was  sum¬ 
moned  from  his  studies  at  college  to  fill  the  posi- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  207 

tion  of  expert  radio  aide  at  Washington.  Here 
he  designed  apparatus  for  government  use.  Freed 
has  been  responsible  to  a  certain  extent  for  the 
popularization  of  radio.  He  is  one  of  the  heads 
of  the  Eisman  Radio  Corporation,  one  of  the 
more  prominent  organizations  in  the  radio  world. 

Dr.  Louis  Cohen,  together  with  Major  Man- 
borgne  of  the  signal  corps,  invented  the  means  for 
eliminating  the  static  buzzing  and  crackling  which 
has  robbed  radio  of  much  of  its  pleasure.  Dr. 
Cohen  is  connected  with  the  faculty  of  the  George 
Washington  University.  Dr.  Arthur  Korn  in¬ 
vented  a  new  method  to  transmit  photographs  by 
radio. 

Turning  to  other  fields  of  invention  we  find  that 
Jewish  ingenuity  is  continually  manifesting  itself. 
Despite  popular  belief,  the  Singer  Machine  is  not 
a  Jewish  invention,  nevertheless  some  of  the  im¬ 
provements  made  upon  the  original  are  to  be 
credited  to  the  Jews.  They  have  added  to  it  the 
“pleater,”  the  “shuttle,”  and  the  “sharrer” 
(mover)  which  increases  considerably  its  speed 
and  reliability.  “They  have  also,”  according  to 
Dr.  Raisin,  in  his  survey  of  the  Russian  Jew,  “pro¬ 
duced  several  devices  for  manufacturing  cigarette 
mouth  pieces  and  the  stuffing  of  tobacco,  some  of 
which  are  now  used  by  the  American  Tobacco 
Company.  A  number  of  Russian  Jews  have  dis- 


208  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

tinguished  themselves  in  the  world  of  invention. 
Abraham  Ragorodsky  made  important  improve¬ 
ments  in  the  aeroplane.  Professor  Rosanoff,  of 
Clark  University,  was  for  a  time  research  assist¬ 
ant  to  Edison.  Isaac  H.  Levin  has  perfected  a 
process  for  producing  artificial  gems  and  invented 
an  oxy-hydrogen  cell  which  goes  by  his  name.” 

Leon  M.  Moisseiff  is  one  of  the  country’s  most 
prominent  engineers.  He  is  the  designer  of  the 
Manhattan  Bridge,  the  Wiliamsburg  Bridge,  and 
the  Queensboro  Bridge.  The  construction  of 
these  gigantic  bridges  which  link  the  various  parts 
of  the  city  into  one  integral  unit  has  been  done 
under  the  supervision  of  this  brilliant  Russian  Jew. 
He  has  recently  been  entrusted  with  the  respon¬ 
sible  task  of  designing  and  building  the  Interstate 
Bridge  across  the  Delaware  connecting  Philadel¬ 
phia  and  Camden,  N.  J. 

Professor  Moses  Gomberg,  of  the  University 
of  Michigan,  is  a  high  authority  on  chemistry. 
Elis  work  on  trivalent  carbon  bids  fair  to  revolu¬ 
tionize  organic  chemistry.  Julius  Oscar  Stieglitz 
is  Director  of  the  Department  of  Chemistry  at 
the  University  of  Chicago.  His  book  on  Qualita¬ 
tive  Chemistry  is  the  standard  volume  on  the  sub¬ 
ject  and  it  is  from  him  that  thousands  of  chemical 
students  from  Maine  to  California  have  gained 
their  knowledge. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  209 

Law  has  a  particular  appeal  for  the  race.  The 
analytical  mind  of  the  Jew,  his  love  for  argument, 
his  capacity  to  pick  so  easily  the  flaws  in  an  oppo¬ 
nent’s  reasoning,  make  him  a  formidable  opponent 
in  the  courtroom.  The  generations  of  his  fore¬ 
fathers,  who  have  for  centuries  argued  about  all 
the  subtleties  of  the  Talmud,  have  transmitted 
to  him  characteristics  that  are  of  utmost  value  to 
those  who  figure  in  legal  battles.  It  is  a  profes¬ 
sion  which  is  truly  congenial  to  the  mentality  of 
the  race.  The  youngest  woman  to  be  admitted 
to  practice  in  the  State  of  Indiana  was  Miss  Jessie 
Levy,  the  youngest  lawyer  ever  raised  to  the  bench 
was  L.  A.  Snitkin.  There  is  no  city  in  the  country 
which  does  not  boast  its  quota  of  Jewish  lawyers, 
many  of  whom  have  risen  to  the  bench  for  the 
dispensing  of  justice.  Justice  Brandeis  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Samuel 
Untermeyer,  Louis  Marshall,  Justice  Irving 
Lehman  of  New  York,  Judge  Hugo  Pam  of  Chi¬ 
cago,  Max  Steuer,  Judge  David  A.  Lourie,  Justice 
Wasservogel,  Judge  Joseph  Proskauer,  Judge 
Julian  Mack,  Judge  Aaron  J.  Levy,  and  a  host  of 
others  have  demonstrated  the  talent  of  the  Jew 
for  the  courtroom  and  the  forum. 


CHAPTER  XII 


IN  PUBLIC  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 

Isolated  for  centuries  from  a  civilization  by  the 
side  of  which  he  existed,  but  in  which  he  did  not 
live,  the  Jew  has  developed  an  intellect  that  is  de¬ 
tached  and  objective.  He  is  free  both  from  the 
virtues  and  from  the  vices  of  the  mind  that  be¬ 
lieves  that  conformity  to  the  past  is  more  import¬ 
ant  than  an  improvement  of  it.  The  bonds  of 
tradition  weigh  but  lightly  upon  him.  The  span 
of  time  that  has  elapsed  since  his  full  entry  into 
society  has  been  insufficient  to  allow  his  mind  to 
crystallize  and  harden.  Hence  it  is  that  the  Jew 
stands  forth  as  a  protagonist  of  the  ideal  that  the 
ways  of  the  fathers  were  not  made  to  be  followed 
but  rather  to  be  improved  upon,  that  he  becomes 
the  apostle  of  constructive  change,  and  of  benefi¬ 
cent  modification.  He  is  the  innovator  and  the 
experimenter,  par  excellence. 

In  political  alignment  the  Jew  is  to  be  found 
occasionally  on  the  right,  more  often  in  the  center, 
and  now  and  then,  on  the  left.  American  liber¬ 
alism  has  for  him  an  irresistible  appeal  and  he  has 

210 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  21  i 

brought  to  its  service  all  his  tradional  intensity  and 
intellectual  powers.  One  of  the  most  brilliant 
idealogues  of  political  liberalism  and  one  of  the 
most  penetrating  critics  of  the  social  and  political 
life  of  America  is  Walter  Lippman,  the  former 
editor  of  the  New  Republic,  an  important  organ 
of  the  so  called  “intellectuals.” 

Walter  Lippman  was  born  in  New  York  in 
1889.  After  receiving  an  education  in  the  public 
and  high  schools  he  went  to  Harvard  where  he 
was  graduated  in  1910.  During  the  war  he  was 
secretary  of  the  organization  directed  by  Colonel 
House  to  prepare  data  for  the  Peace  Conference. 
He  has  been  a  prolific  contributor  to  American 
periodicals  and  is  at  present  associated  with  the 
New  York  World.  He  is  an  active  member  of 
the  “American  Academy  of  Social  and  Political 
Science”  and  of  the  “American  Economic  Associa¬ 
tion  for  Labor  Legislation.”  His  most  note¬ 
worthy  works  are  “A  Preface  to  Politics,”  “Drift 
and  Mastery,”  “Stakes  of  Diplomacy,”  “The 
Political  Scene,”  “Public  Opinion.”  Associated 
with  his  New  Republic  group  are  a  number  of 
other  Jewish  writers:  Leo  Wolman,  Professor 
Frankfurter,  Horace  Kallen,  Morris  R.  Cohen 
and  Louis  Untermeyer  have  added  their  contribu¬ 
tions  to  its  incisive  columns.  Walter  E.  Weyl 
(died  1919)  was  a  prolific  writer  on  the  subject  of 


212  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

political  liberalism.  He  was  the  author  of  “The 
New  Democracy,”  “Tired  Radicals,”  “The  Great 
Peace,”  etc. 

Louis  D.  Brandeis,  whom  Norman  Hapgood, 
the  publicist,  has  called  “one  of  the  four  brainiest 
men  in  America,”  is  an  outstanding  figure  in  the 
economic  life  of  the  country.  A  native  of  Louis¬ 
ville,  where  he  was  born  in  1865,  he  later  moved 
to  Boston.  Here  he  became  known  as  “The 
“People’s  Lawyer,”  because  of  his  advocacy  of 
welfare  legislation.  He  fought  the  transportation 
monopoly  of  the  railroad  oligarchy  that  was  domi¬ 
nant  in  the  New  Haven  Railroad.  The  Boston 
municipal  subway  system  owes  its  preservation,  to 
a  large  extent,  to  his  efforts.  Brandeis  was  also 
the  people’s  counsel  in  the  proceedings  involving 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Oregon  and  Illinois 
women’s  ten  hour  law,  the  Ohio  nine  hour  law 
and  the  Oregon  minimum  wage  law.  In  these 
cases  he  revolutionized  the  method  of  argument 
by  substituting  a  statement  of  contemporary  in¬ 
dustrial  conditions  for  an  appeal  to  hoary  prece¬ 
dent.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the  Arbitration 
Board  of  the  New  York  Garment  Workers.  He 
has  written  extensively  on  political  and  economic 
subjects  as  well  as  on  Zionism.  His  two  most 
important  works  are  “Other  People’s  Money,” 
and  “Business  —  a  Profession.” 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  213 

This  tendency  for  improvement,  of  which  the 
Jew  is  an  ardent  exponent,  embraces  also  the 
realm  of  prison  reform.  Adolph  Lewisohn  has 
been  known  for  years  as  one  of  the  guiding  minds 
of  the  movement  for  a  new  orientation  to  the 
problem  of  penal  institutions.  Mr.  Joseph  Fish¬ 
man  is  the  author  of  “Crucibles  of  Crimes,”  per¬ 
haps  the  most  stirring  indictment  of  penal 
methods.  For  a  number  of  years  a  government 
inspector  of  prisons,  he  has  witnessed  the  horrors 
of  our  present  system  of  prison  administration 
and  his  book  is  a  clarion  call  for  a  new  method 
and  a  new  policy.  Frank  Tannenbaum,  a  young 
Russian  Jew,  is  also  awakening  the  public  mind. 
In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  he  has  again  and 
again  urged  the  necessity  for  a  revision  of  prison 
administration. 

In  the  field  of  industrial  relations,  the  Jew  has 
been  the  first  to  realize  the  ideal  of  the  superiority 
of  law  over  combat.  A  most  interesting  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  methods  of  solution  of  trade  disagree¬ 
ments  has  been  introduced  by  Jewish  workers. 
The  clothing  strike  in  1910  was  ended  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  Louis  D.  Brandeis.  The 
disturbing  question  of  the  open  shop  was  finally 
settled  by  a  method  which  might  well  serve  as  a 
model  for  all  other  American  industries  afflicted 
with  the  same  problem.  The  employers  on  the 


214  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

one  hand  were  reluctant  to  bind  themselves  hand 
and  foot  by  the  closed  shop,  the  union  on  the  other 
was  insistent  on  preserving  the  gains  it  had  made. 
At  this  juncture  the  “preferential  shop”  was 
agreed  upon  and  written  into  the  protocol  of 
peace.  The  workers  were  not  subjected  to  the 
whims  of  the  employer,  nor  was  any  necessary 
authority  denied  to  the  latter.  “The  preferen¬ 
tial  shop  idea,”  says  Professor  Howard  in  the 
Hart,  Schaffner  and  Marx  Agreement,  Chicago, 
.1920,  p.  76,  “is  a  compromise  by  which  the 
greatest  dangers  and  injustice  of  compulsory  union 
membership  are  avoided  and  yet  by  which  there  is 
a  distinct  advantage  to  the  union.  Union  mem¬ 
bers  have  a  preference  when  new  people  are 
needed  and  when  the  force  must  be  reduced  they 
are  retained  in  preference  to  others.  Under  this 
system,  the  danger  of  abuse  of  arbitrary  powers 
by  officials  of  the  union  as  well  as  by  employees 
is  much  reduced.  Both  must  submit  in  equal  de¬ 
gree  to  the  board  of  arbitration  and  all  their  ac¬ 
tions  may  be  reviewed  by  that  body.” 

Socialism  has  claimed  a  number  of  devotees 
among  the  Jews.  To  a  certain  extent,  however, 
it  is  a  passing  phase  of  the  adjustment  of  the 
immigrant  Jews  to  America,  and  as  they  ascend 
the  economic  scale  and  take  advantage  of  Ameri¬ 
can  opportunity,  they  relinquish  their  more  ex* 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  215 

treme  view  of  social  problems.  They  have  con¬ 
tributed,  nevertheless,  several  theoreticians  and 
leaders  to  the  movement.  Morris  Hilquit  is  the 
author  of  several  volumes  defining  the  aims  of  the 
movement  and  co-author  with  Father  Ryan  of 
the  Catholic  University  at  Washington  of  the 
volume  containing  the  debate  “Socialism,  Promise 
or  Menace.”  One  of  the  two  Socialists  elected 
to  Congress  was  Meyer  London.  Jacob  Panken 
has  been  elected  to  the  municipal  bench  on  the 
lower  East  Side  of  New  York  and  has  the  dis¬ 
tinction  of  being  the  only  Socialist  Judge  in  the 
country. 

A  number  of  Jews  have  served  in  the  halls  of 
Congress.  Julius  Kahn  has  been  chairman  of  the 
House  committee  on  Military  affairs  while  among 
the  more  prominent  congressman  of  recent  years 
may  be  mentioned  Isaac  Siegel,  Nathan  Perlman, 
Isaac  Bacharach,  Lester  Volk,  Henry  NJ.  Gold- 
fogle,  Leon  Sanders,  Emanuel  Celler,  Samuel 
Dickstein  and  others. 

A  number  of  individual  Jews  have  participated 
in  the  movement  for  a  greater  democratic  organi¬ 
zation  of  industry.  Henry  A.  Dix,  a  wealthy  man¬ 
ufacturer  of  women’s  garments  in  New  York  City, 
has  deliberatly  turned  over,  with  the  assistance  of 
his  sons  and  heirs,  a  million  dollar  concern  to  his 
employees.  Edward  Hochhauser  of  the  Altro 


216  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Manufacturing  Company  has  done  pioneer  work 
in  the  assistance  of  invalids.  His  factory  is  unique 
in  that  it  gives  employment  to  none  save  ex-tuber- 
culosis  sufferers.  Adequate  provisions  are  made 
for  the  safeguarding  of  the  health  of  the  con¬ 
valescents.  Located  at  the  top  of  a  loft  building 
it  is  equipped  with  a  kitchen,  rest  room,  steamer 
chairs  and  much  of  the  paraphernalia  of  a  con¬ 
valescent  institution.  Food  is  served  at  cost  price. 

The  Weinstock-Lubin  Company,  of  which 
David  Lubin  was  one  of  the  partners,  has  been 
reorganized  on  a  completely  democratic  basis. 
In  1919  the  Board  of  Directors  recognized  the 
right  of  employees  to  have  a  share  in  the  manage¬ 
ment.  Now  it  has  become  practically  a  co-opera¬ 
tive  concern  with  the  complete  management  vested 
in  a  Board  of  Directors  chosen  from  the  em¬ 
ployees. 

Other  firms  have  followed  in  the  pathway  of 
the  pioneers,  who,  to  eliminate  industrial  conflicts, 
have  reorganized  their  institutions.  The  Hart 
Schaffner  Marx  Company,  the  world’s  largest 
manufacturers  of  clothing,  have  a  managing  com¬ 
mittee  composed  of  representatives  of  the  firm  and 
delegates  elected  from  the  workers.  The  Sydney 
Blumenthal  Company  owners  of  the  Shelton 
Looms,  Shelton,  Conn.,  have  instituted  an  indus¬ 
trial  democracy  modelled  on  the  American  form 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  217 

of  government.  Delegates  from  the  employees 
constitute  a  House  of  Representatives,  the  fore¬ 
men  constitute  a  Senate,  and  the  Cabinet  consists 
of  the  managers.  Measures  concerning  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  organization  are  discussed  and  passed 
by  the  three  bodies. 

Meyer  Bloomfield  is  a  high  authority  on  indus¬ 
trial  relations  and  Miss  Rose  C.  Feld  has  written 
an  illuminating  work  on  “Humanizing  Industry.” 
Another  authoritative  writer  on  the  subject  of  wel¬ 
fare  and  industry  is  Kee  L.  Frankel,  who  in  con¬ 
junction  with  Alexander  Fleisher,  wrote  the 
“Human  Factor  in  Industry.” 

Frankel  is  a  vice-president  of  the  Metropolitan 
Life  Insurance  Company  and  has  distinguished 
himself  in  welfare  work.  He  is  president  of  the 
American  Public  Health  Association,  the  New 
York  State  Conference  of  Charities,  etc.  He  has 
been  influential  in  organizing  the  National  Health 
Council.  Recently  he  was  invited  by  the  Ameri¬ 
can  government  to  draw  up  plans  for  welfare 
work  among  the  300,000  postal  employees. 

The  Federal  Reserve  System,  an  epoch  making 
piece  of  financial  legislation  which  stabilized  the 
flow  of  money  and  reduced  to  a  minimum  the 
possibility  of  financial  stringency,  is  the  child  of 
the  brain  of  Paul  Warburg.  It  has  been  called 
the  greatest  financial  measure  since  the  days  of 


2i 8  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Alexander  Hamilton.  Warburg  is  associated 
with  the  house  of  Kuhn,  Loeb  &  Company.  He  is 
Vice  President  of  the  Federal  Advisory  Council 
of  the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  director  of  the 
National  Employment  Exchange,  Treasurer  of  the 
Institute  of  Musical  Art,  and  is  active  in  a  host  of 
enterprises  having  philanthropic  and  cultural  pur¬ 
poses. 

The  reorganization  of  the  Shipping  Board  has 
been  the  work  of  Albert  Lasker  of  Chicago. 
Lasker  was  born  in  Texas  in  1880.  His  father 
was  a  Confederate  soldier  who  fought  with  the 
troops  from  his  state  throughout  the  war.  Lasker 
is  the  sole  owner  of  Lord  and  Thomas,  among  the 
largest  of  the  country’s  advertising  concerns.  He 
entered  its  employ  at  the  wage  of  $10.00  per  week 
and  in  a  comparatively  short  time  took  over  the 
entire  business.  He  is  one  of  the  owners  of  the 
Chicago  Cubs  baseball  team.  Upon  his  sugges¬ 
tion,  Judge  Kenesaw  M.  Landis  was  made  arbiter 
of  the  national  sport. 

Effective  work  in  the  drafting  of  constructive 
measures  of  reform  has  been  done  by  Samuel 
Untermeyer.  Because  of  his  manifold  activities 
he  has  the  unique  honor  of  having  a  greater  space 
allotted  to  him  in  “Who’s  Who”  than  any  other 
American.  He  has  been  an  organizer  of  many  of 
the  large  American  corporations,  yet  has  stood 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  219 

forth  as  an  unsurpassed  guardian  of  public  weal. 
As  counsel  for  the  Pujo  Committee  in  1913,  he 
laid  bare  the  gigantic  ramifications  of  the  money 
trust  which  was  gradually  monopolizing  the  finan¬ 
cial  sources  of  American  industry  and  credit. 
Perhaps  the  highest  paid  counsel  in  the  country, 
he  has  in  1922  given  his  services  gratis  for  a 
period  of  months  to  the  Lockwood  Committee  of 
the  New  York  Legislature  for  the  investigation  of 
the  housing  situation.  After  sending  to  jail  sev¬ 
eral  of  those  responsible  for  conspiracy  in  the 
building  trade  he  fathered  the  passage  of  remedial 
legislation.  Upon  his  request  the  New  York  State 
Legislature  amended  the  laws  to  allow  insurance 
companies  to  loan  money  for  construction  pur¬ 
poses.  One  hundred  million  dollars  was  set  aside 
to  build  homes  for  45,000  families,  with  rental 
rates  below  those  prevailing.  His  suggestion  for 
arbitration  schemes  for  the  settlement  of  difficul¬ 
ties  in  the  building  trade  was  unanimously 
accepted. 

The  Institute  of  Politics  at  Williamstown, 
Mass.,  which  is  becoming  an  international  forum 
for  the  exchange  of  views  on  pressing  public  prob¬ 
lems,  owes  its  existence  to  Bernard  M.  Baruch. 
Every  summer  representatives  of  the  various 
countries  gather  to  analyze  the  political  and  eco¬ 
nomic  situation  and  to  propound  their  views  for 


220  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

its  improvement.  It  has  become  a  forum  to  which 
many  intelligent  Americans  look  for  guidance  and 
counsel. 

Baruch,  who  is  a  descendant  of  a  revolutionary 
war  family  on  his  mother’s  side,  and  the  son  of 
the  famous  physician,  Dr.  Simon  Baruch,  obtained 
his  education  at  the  City  College  of  New  York. 
For  a  number  of  years  he  has  been  a  familiar 
figure  in  the  financial  world.  The  World  War 
gave  him  an  opportunity  for  service,  in  which  he 
demonstrated  his  unusual  capacities.  Speaking 
of  Baruch,  the  author  of  the  famous  work 
‘‘Mirrors  of  Washington”  writes:  “Baruch  and 
Hoover,  alone  of  the  business  men  who  came  to 
Washington  during  the  war,  achieved  real  suc¬ 
cesses  in  the  highest  positions,  and  Baruch  showed 
vastly  the  greater  capacity  of  the  two  to  operate 
in  a  political  atmosphere.  A  man  who  was  nothing 
but  a  Wall  Street  speculator,  not  an  industrial 
organizer,  organized  successfully  the  biggest  in¬ 
dustrial  combination  the  world  has  ever  seen.” 

The  cause  of  infant  and  child  welfare  has  en¬ 
listed  the  services  of  a  number  of  Jews  and 
Jewesses.  Perhaps  the  most  important  figure  in 
child  saving  work  is  Lillian  D.  Wald,  founder  of 
the  Henry  Street  Settlement.  She  organized  dis¬ 
trict  nursing  work  and  also  originated  the  idea 
of  school  nurses.  This  innovation  was  the  first 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  221 

attempt  in  the  world  of  the  municipalization  of 
school  nursing.  The  idea  of  a  Federal  Children’s 
Bureau  also  owes  its  origin  to  the  fertile  mind  of 
this  outstanding  social  worker.  Miss  Wald  was 
a  member  of  the  International  Conference  called 
by  President  Wilson  in  1919.  Despite  her  strenu¬ 
ous  activity,  she  has  found  time  to  recount  the 
story  of  her  activity  for  the  social  welfare  of  the 
masses  in  a  volume  entitled  “The  House  on  Henry 
Street.” 

Equally  interested  in  the  cause  of  child  saving 
is  the  veteran  and  beloved  philanthropist  Nathan 
Straus,  who  was  voted  by  the  populace  of  New 
York  to  be  the  most  useful  citizen  of  the  metropo¬ 
lis.  Born  in  1848,  he  has  a  long  record  of  philan¬ 
thropic  deeds.  In  1899  Nathan  Straus  originated 
and  maintained  at  his  own  expense  a  laboratory 
and  a  system  of  distribution  of  pasteurized  milk. 
Even  previously  to  this,  he  had  done  meritorious 
work  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the 
poor.  In  1892  he  originated  and  maintained  a 
system  for  the  distribution  of  coal  to  the  poor. 
During  the  Spanish  War  he  donated  to  the  govern¬ 
ment  an  ice  plant  at  Santiago,  Cuba.  Straus  has 
been  a  delegate  to  the  International  Congress  for 
the  Protection  of  Infants,  and  also  to  the  Tubercu¬ 
losis  Congress.  During  19 14-15  he  served 
1 , 1 3 5,73 1  meals  at  the  minimum  price  of  one  cent 


222  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

from  his  numerous  milk  depots.  This  beloved 
Jewish  philanthropist  has  during  the  past  years 
expended  more  than  his  income  on  a  vast  net  of 
philanthropic  and  charitable  institutions,  serving 
mankind  regardless  of  creed  or  race.  The  prob¬ 
lem  of  pasteurized  milk  has  particularly  engaged 
the  attention  of  Straus,  and  he  has  compiled  an 
illustrated  volume  on  “Disease  in  Milk  —  The 
Remedy,  Pasteurization.” 

Louis  Marshall,  born  in  Syracuse  in  1856,  has 
a  long  record  of  public  activity.  Marshall  has 
been  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Conventions 
of  the  State  of  New  York  in  1890,  1894,  1915, 
being  the  first  citizen  to  serve  in  three  different 
conventions.  He  was  appointed  to  serve  as 
chairman  of  the  New  York  State  Immigration 
Commission  by  former  Governor  Hughes.  Mar¬ 
shall  is  the  generally  recognized  lay  leader  of 
American  Jewry  and  in  that  capacity  was  exceed¬ 
ingly  active  in  the  movement  for  the  abrogation 
of  the  treaty  with  Russia  in  1913.  He  also 
assisted  in  settling  the  strike  of  the  clothing 
workers  and  procured  the  enactment  of  legislation 
regulating  private  and  foreign  bankers.  He  is  a 
trustee  of  Syracuse  University  and  has  presented 
to  it  a  law  library.  He  has  filled  a  number  of 
public  offices  among  them  being  the  presidency  of 
the  New  York  State  College  of  Forestry  and  the 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  223 

Chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  the  Amend¬ 
ment  of  Laws  in  the  Bar  Association  of  New 
York.  Marshall  has  also  been  instrumental  in 
leading  the  relief  campaign  which  netted 
$60,000,000  for  suffering  Jews  abroad. 

The  Strauses,  Rosenwalds,  Warburgs  and 
Schiffs  are  but  the  contemporary  exponents  of  the 
old  Jewish  ideal  of  philanthropy.  They  continue 
a  tradition  which  has  been  characteristic  of  the 
Jews  since  the  growth  of  Jewish  settlements  in 
America  and  which  has  as  its  father  in  this  country 
the  famous  Judah  Touro,  a  post  revolutionary 
war  figure  of  great  importance. 

Touro,  who  was  one  of  the  wealthy  men  of  his 
day,  was  a  noteworthy  benefactor  and  patriot. 
The  erection  of  the  Bunker  Hill  monument  in 
1821  was  made  possible,  in  a  measure,  through  his 
gift  of  $10,000.  He  dispensed  charity  widely 
without  regard  to  race  or  creed.  When  a  Univer- 
salist  Congregation  in  New  Orleans  was  sold  at 
auction  because  of  the  foreclosure  of  the  mort¬ 
gage,  Touro  bought  the  mortgage  and  made  a  gift 
of  it  to  the  church.  After  his  death,  his  will  dis¬ 
posed  of  a  half  million  dollars  for  charitable  pur¬ 
poses,  an  enormous  sum  for  those  days. 

The  American  Red  Cross,  which  has  since  its 
inception  been  the  means  for  a  vast  amount  of 
beneficent  activity  owes  its  inception,  to  a  large 


224  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

extent,  to  Adolphus  S.  Solomon.  In  conjunction 
with  Clara  Barton  he  laid  its  foundation  stones. 
The  very  first  meeting  called  to  consider  the  for¬ 
mation  of  the  society  was  held  in  his  house.  When 
the  International  Red  Cross  Congress  was  con¬ 
vened  in  Geneva,  Solomon,  together  with  Miss 
Barton  represented  the  United  States.  As  a 
tribute  to  his  efforts,  the  delegates  elected  him 
vice-president  of  their  sessions. 

Another  oustanding  philanthropist  was  Jacob 
Henry  Schiff.  Born  in  1848  in  Germany  he  came  to 
America  where  he  entered  the  banking  business. 
He  was  affiliated  with  the  House  of  Kuhn,  Loeb 
&  Co.  A  good  portion  of  the  fortune  he  amassed 
was  spent  in  philanthropic  enterprises.  He  did 
not  confine  himself  to  institutions  of  his  own  race, 
but  opened  his  purse  for  a  large  number  of  non¬ 
sectarian  institutions.  He  contributed  to  Cornell 
University  and  to  Barnard  College.  His  donations 
went  to  innumerable  hospitals  and  educational  in¬ 
stitutions,  and  more  than  one  philanthropic  organ¬ 
ization  owes  the  extension  of  its  activities  to  his 
support.  In  1920  Schiff  died,  leaving  behind  him 
large  bequests  for  institutions  which  he  had  sup¬ 
ported  during  his  lifetime.  His  son,  Mortimer 
Schiff,  the  largest  financial  supporter  of  the  Boy 
Scouts  of  America,  is  carrying  on  the  philanthropic 
tradition  of  the  family. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  225 

There  have  been  a  number  of  Jews  who  have 
represented  their  country  abroad.  The  most  im¬ 
portant  of  the  early  figures  was  Major  Mordecai 
Manuel  Noah,  the  vivid  and  versatile  personality 
of  New  York  society  in  the  beginning  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century.  Noah,  appointed  by  President 
Madison,  was  consul  general  at  Tunis  for  a  num¬ 
ber  of  years.  During  the  course  of  his  sojourn 
abroad  he  managed  to  write  “Travels  in  England, 
Spain  and  the  Barbary  Coast.”  Later  he  was 
elected  sheriff  of  New  York  County  where  he 
played  an  important  part  in  the  political  life  of 
his  time. 

Edwin  de  Leon  was  consul  general  in  Egypt  in 
the  50’s  of  the  last  century.  He  was  a  very  versa¬ 
tile  figure,  a  lawyer,  journalist  and  politician  and 
publisher.  He  established  the  Southern  Press, 
which  became  the  Washington  organ  of  the  South 
during  the  decade  preceding  the  Civil  War.  De 
Leon  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  the  Greeks 
when  the  latter  were  threatened  with  expulsion 
from  Turkey.  He  introduced  American  machinery 
into  Egypt  and  opened  up  new  markets  for  the 
country’s  products.  During  the  Civil  War,  he 
was  sent  on  a  Confederate  mission  to  Europe  to 
urge  recognition  of  the  South. 

Benjamin  F.  Peixotto  (1839-1890)  first  served 
as  editor  of  the  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  and  was 


226  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

then  appointed  by  President  Grant  as  Consul 
General  to  Roumania.  Here  he  distinguished 
himself  as  a  warm  advocate  of  his  persecuted  co¬ 
religionists  and  was  instrumental  in  enlisting  the 
sympathy  of  Americans  in  their  behalf. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  Jewish  figure 
amongst  the  country’s  representatives  abroad  was 
Oscar  Straus,  born  in  1850  in  North  Carolina. 
After  graduating  from  Columbia  College  in  1871, 
he  devoted  himself  to  law.  He  was  the  United 
States  minister  and  ambassador  to  Turkey  under 
three  different  administrations.  Amidst  the  bustle 
of  political  life,  he  has  found  time  to  write  two 
scholarly  volumes,  “The  Development  of  Religious 
Liberty  in  the  United  States”  and  the  “Origin  of 
the  Republican  Form  of  Government.”  In  the 
latter  he  has  demonstrated  the  unique  influence 
of  Jewish  spiritual  ideals  in  the  founding  of  the 
American  republic  and  has  obligated  to  himself 
every  writer  on  Jewish  influence  in  America  by  his 
exhaustive  research.  In  addition  he  has  written 
“Under  Four  Administrations,”  a  biographic 
narrative  replete  with  interesting  comment  on  the 
leading  American  personalities  of  the  last  four 
decades.  Straus  was  among  the  founders  of  the 
National  Civic  Federation,  the  American  Associa¬ 
tion  of  International  Law,  etc.  He  is  affiliated 
with  a  great  number  of  political  and  academic 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  227 

associations  and  was  candidate  for  Governor  of 
New  York  State  on  the  Progressive  ticket  in  1912. 
Straus  was  the  American  represenative  at  the 
International  Court  of  Arbitration  at  the  Hague. 
In  1906,  he  became  Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labor  under  President  Roosevelt.  Despite  ad¬ 
vancing  years  he  has  not  diminished  his  activity 
and  still  remains  an  outstanding  figure  of  today. 

Solomon  Hirsch,  Henry  Morgenthau  and 
Abram  I.  Elkus  have  also  occupied  the  position  of 
Ambassador  to  Turkey.  Ira  Nelson  Morris  has 
been  Minister  to  Sweden.  Rabbi  Joseph  Louis 
Kornfeld  is  serving  at  present  as  Minister  to 
Persia,  while  Lewis  Einstein,  an  experienced  diplo¬ 
mat  and  scholar,  author  of  “Tudor  England,”  is 
occupying  the  same  position  in  Czecho-Slovakia. 

A  number  of  Jews  have  served  in  consular  posts, 
among  them  Max  D.  Kirjasoff,  Consul-General  to 
Japan,  who  met  his  death  in  the  cataclysmic  earth¬ 
quake  that  overwhelmed  that  oriental  country  in 
September,  1923.  Simon  Wolf  was  Consul  Gen¬ 
eral  to  Egypt  during  the  Garfield  Administration. 

Dr.  Leo  S.  Rowe  has  been  an  effective  factor  in 
linking  together  North  and  South  America.  Dr. 
Rowe  is  Director  of  the  Pan  American  Union  and 
is  responsible,  to  a  large  extent,  for  the  existing 
harmony  between  the  United  States  and  its  South¬ 
ern  neighbors.  In  addition,  he  is  the  head  of  the 


228  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

South  American  Section  of  the  Department  of 
State.  Since  1902  he  has  been  President  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social 
Science. 

In  upholding  the  ideal  of  equality  before  the 
law  and  in  seeking  to  combat  oppression  of  racial 
minorities,  the  Jews  have  not  been  remiss.  Louis 
Marshall  fought  for  the  rights  of  Japanese  in 
California  who  believed  themselves  to  have  been 
unfairly  treated.  Herbert  J.  Seligman  has  been 
a  staunch  fighter  against  Negro  oppression  and 
is  the  author  of  “The  Negro  Faces  America.” 
Joel  Spingarn,  formerly  professor  at  Columbia 
University  and  one  of  the  most  prominent  literary 
critics  in  America  today  has  spent  much  time  and 
labor  for  the  amelioration  of  conditions  among 
suffering  negroes.  The  great  benefactions  of 
Julius  Rosenwald  to  Negro  Y.  M.  C.  A.’s  has  en¬ 
abled  them  to  carry  out  extended  activities  other¬ 
wise  denied  them. 

In  the  realm  of  journalism,  Adolph  S.  Ochs  is 
one  of  the  most  prominent  Jewish  figures.  Born 
in  Cincinnati  in  1858,  he  became  a  carrier  newsboy 
at  the  age  of  eleven.  Later  he  was  elevated  to 
the  position  of  printer’s  apprentice.  At  twenty, 
however,  he  had  managed  to  become  the  publisher 
of  the  Chattanooga  Times.  Then  he  came  to 
New  York  to  direct  the  destines  of  the  New  York 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  229 

Times ,  which  then  had  a  circulation  of  9,000  and 
a  daily  deficit  of  $1,000.  In  twenty-five  years  he 
transformed  it  into  one  of  the  most  influential  of 
the  world’s  dailies. 

Leon  Carvahlo  is  the  general  manager  of  the 
Hearst  Publications.  Victor  Rosewater  for  a  long 
time  was  publisher  of  the  Omaha  Bee,  Daniel 
Nicoll  is  publisher  of  the  Evening  Mail  of  New 
York.  David  Lawrence,  formerly  connected  with 
the  New  York  Evening  Post ,  was  for  a  long 
time  its  Washington  correspondent.  Charles 
Michelson,  a  brother  of  Professor  Albert 
Michelson,  the  physicist,  is  a  political  writer  on 
the  Morning  World  of  New  York,  which  has 
among  its  foreign  correspondents  Samuel  Spe- 
wack.  The  New  York  World,  was  founded  by 
Joseph  Pulitzer,  who  was  of  Jewish  descent. 
Herman  Bernstein,  formerly  connected  with  the 

New  York  Times  and  the  New  York  Sun .  is 

* 

the  author  of  a  volume  entitled  “With  Master 
Minds,”  a  series  of  interviews  with  the  leading 
personalities  of  the  day.  Simeon  Strunsky  is  lite¬ 
rary  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post . 
Jack  Lait  is  one  of  the  most  prolific  of  contempo¬ 
rary  journalists  and  short  story  writers.  Fabian 
Franklin,  formerly  of  the  Baltimore  News,  is  a 
veteran  American  journalist.  Benjamin  DeCas- 
seres  is  both  a  journalist  and  an  essayist  of  un^ 


230  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

usual  distinction.  Sophie  Irene  Loeb  is  a  popular 
writer  on  feminine  subjects  and  social  welfare, 
connected  with  the  New  York  Evening  World. 
Michael  Harry  de  Young  owns  and  edits  the  San 
Francisco  Chronicle. 

S.  J.  Kaufman  is  on  the  staff  of  the  Evening 
Telegram.  Sonia  Levin  is  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  Metropolitan  Magazine.  Gilbert  Seldes  is 
managing  editor  of  The  Dial.  Dr.  Henry  Hur- 
witz  and  Marvin  Lowenthal  are  the  editors  of  the 
Menorah  Journal . 

There  are  hosts  of  young  Jews  scattered 
throughout  the  breadth  and  length  of  the  land 
who  occupy  minor  journalistic  positions.  In  addi¬ 
tion  there  is  particularly  in  New  York  City  a 
flourishing  Yiddish  press  which  vies  with  the 
better  newspapers  of  the  larger  cities  in  intelli¬ 
gence  and  high  calibre. 

The  scholastic  and  literary  attainments  of  the 
editors  of  the  Yiddish  press  are  unusual.  Of  the 
four  New  York  papers  with  any  claim  to  standing 
two  are  conservative,  one  is  liberal,  and  one  is  re¬ 
form  Socialist.  One  of  the  editors  of  Der  Tag 
(liberal)  is  Dr.  Abram  Coralnik,  a  man  of  ex¬ 
traordinary  linguistic  capacity.  Dr.  Coralnik 
writes  and  reads  ten  different  languages.  He  has 
contributed  to  the  Freeman  and  other  American 
periodicals  of  literary  distinction.  A  member  of 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  231 

the  regular  staff  is  Prof.  I.  A.  Hourwich,  formerly 
of  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
author  of  the  exhaustive  treatise  on  “Immigration 
and  Labor,”  and  a  number  of  other  works  on 
economic  and  kindred  subjects.  Another  regular 
and  prolific  member  of  the  staff  is  Dr.  Chayim 
Zhitlovsky,  who  has  written  a  three  volume  his¬ 
tory  of  philosophy,  nine  volumes  of  essays  in 
Yiddish  on  economics  and  general  literature,  and 
a  number  of  works  in  German  and  Russian.  One 
of  the  leading  contributors  to  this  paper  is  S. 
Niger,  a  young  critic  whose  work  is  not  inferior 
to  some  of  best  literary  criticism  produced  in 
America  today. 

The  editor  of  The  Forward  (Reform  Social¬ 
ist)  is  the  eminent  novelist,  Abraham  Cahan. 
Sholom  Asch,  the  famous  playwright,  whose 
dramas  and  novels  have  been  translated  into  a 
number  of  languages,  is  a  regular  member  of  the 
staff.  Ramsay  McDonald,  the  present  premier 
of  England,  was  for  some  time  London  corres¬ 
pondent  of  The  Forward >  a  position  now  filled 
by  Philip  Snowden,  M.  P.  The  Berlin  correspon¬ 
dent  of  The  Forward  is  Karl  Kautsky;  its  Paris 
correspondent  is  Jean  Longuet. 

The  editor  of  the  Jewish  Morning  Journal , 
which  is  as  conservative  as  the  New  York 
Times y  is  Peter  Wiernick,  the  author  of  a  schol- 


232  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

arly  volume  in  English,  “The  History  of  the  Jews 
in  America” ;  while  George  Selikowitch,  editor  of 
Der  Tageblatt  (The  Jewish  Daily  News,  con¬ 
servative),  is  a  linguist  and  philosopher.  He  has 
among  other  works  written  “The  Philosophy  of 
Buddha.” 

All  shades  of  political  opinion  are  found  rep¬ 
resented  in  the  Yiddish  Press.  Yiddish  news¬ 
papers  fulfill  the  functions  of  a  magazine  in  addi¬ 
tion  to  their  duties  as  purveyors  of  news.  They 
publish  a  plethora  of  articles  on  the  most  varied 
subjects  which  have  their  counterpart  only  in  the 
American  weekly  and  monthly  periodicals.  Due 
to  the  wide  dispersion  of  the  Jews,  these  New 
York  newspapers  have  a  regular  correspondence 
service  that  equals  in  its  ramifications  the  large  in¬ 
ternational  news  agencies.  Occasionally  one  finds 
in  a  Yiddish  newspaper  articles  from  correspond¬ 
ents  in  such  far  apart  places  as  Palestine,  France 
and  South  America.  The  wide  outlook  resulting, 
from  an  acquaintance  with  conditions  in  such 
diverse  lands  is  a  distinct  gain  to  the  mentality 
of  the  American  readers  of  the  Yiddish  press. 
The  mental  food  they  serve  surpasses  that  of 
many  American  newspapers;  they  are  contribu¬ 
tions  to  America,  for  they  are  agencies  for  the 
enlightenment  and  cultural  elevation  of  American 
citizens  and  residents. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  233 

In  the  realm  of  religion  a  large  number  of  in¬ 
fluential  leaders  and  rabbis  have  arisen  who,  while 
devoting  their  efforts  particularly  to  the  internal 
life  of  the  Jews,  nevertheless  proved  of  great  in¬ 
fluence  in  the  elevation  of  the  moral  tone  of  the 
general  community. 

American  life  on  the  other  hand  has  had  a  mod¬ 
ifying  effect  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  Jew. 
Faced  with  a  set  of  new  conditions,  unlimited  re¬ 
ligious  freedom  and  the  opportunity  to  join  spir¬ 
itually  and  culturally  into  the  life  of  the  American, 
he  has  adapted  the  old  forms  to  the  demands  of 
the  new  times.  In  the  case  of  some  of  its  Jewish 
citizens  America  has  weakened  the  strictness  with 
which  the  Jew  has  followed  the  orthodox  ritual 
that  characterized  his  life  in  Europe;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  American  Jew  has  acquired  the 
power  of  organization  and  the  capacity  to  develop 
the  philanthropic  and  social  service  activity  of 
the  group.  The  Jews  in  their  communal  and  re¬ 
ligious  life  have  acquired  completely  some  of  the 
outstanding  features  of  American  civilization,  sys¬ 
tem,  mechanical  organization,  and  material 
power. 

The  most  important  of  the  reformed  Rabbis 
was  Isaac  M.  Wise  (Bohemia  18 19-Cincinnati 
1900).  He  established  in  Cincinnati  The 
Israelite  (now  the  American  Israelite) ,  and 


234  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

through  this  organ  advocated  unceasingly  the 
ideals  of  a  reformed  Judaism.  His  versatile  gifts 
enabled  him  to  shine  as  a  forceful  preacher,  an 
erudite  writer  of  historical  and  theological  works, 
a  novelist  with  several  works  to  his  credit,  and  an 
author  of  two  plays.  His  chief  strength  was  his 
organizing  ability.  In  a  comparatively  short  time 
he  organized  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew 
Congregations,  the  Hebrew  Union  College 
(opened  1875)  and  the  Central  Conference  of 
American  Rabbis  (1889). 

A  number  of  other  Rabbis  from  Germany  ar¬ 
rived  during  the  time  of  Wise’s  growing  ascend¬ 
ency  in  American  religious  life  and  aided  in  its 
organization.  David  Einhorn,  Kaufman  Kohler, 
President  Emeritus  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College, 
Samuel  Adler,  Bernhard  Felsenthal,  Max  Lilien- 
thal,  and  Samuel  Hirsch  were  instrumental  in 
fashioning  the  form  and  content  of  what  its  pro¬ 
tagonists  call  American  Judaism. 

The  son  of  Samuel  Hirsch,  Emil  G.  Hirsch 
(Luxenbourg  1852-Chicago  1922)  succeeded  in 
becoming  one  of  the  most  influential  of  the  rabbis 
after  the  passing  of  the  earlier  pioneers.  He  was 
a  professor  of  Rabbinical  Literature  at  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  Chicago,  the  editor  of  the  Reformed 
Advocate,  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Jewish  en- 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  235 

cyclopedia,  and  active  in  the  elevation  of  the  moral 
and  cultural  level  of  the  city  of  Chicago. 

His  mantle  as  the  leader  of  the  reformed  faith 
has  fallen  upon  the  shoulders  of  Stephen  S.  Wise 
(Budapest  1872),  rabbi  of  the  Free  Synagogue  of 
New  York  and  the  head  of  the  Jewish  Institute  of 
Religion.  Wise  is  generally  considered  as  the 
most  eloquent  of  American  rabbis,  if  not  among 
the  most  eloquent  of  living  Americans.  He  has 
in  addition  to  his  rabbincal  duties  been  active  in 
the  improvement  of  the  political  life  of  the  com¬ 
munity  and  in  the  organization  of  American 
Jewry. 

The  incoming  hosts  of  Jews  from  Eastern 
Europe,  who  followed  after  the  German-Jewish 
groups  were  firmly  established,  brought  with  them 
a  firm  orthodox  faith  and  a  number  of  great 
Talmudic  scholars.  Pre-eminent  among  them  was 
Solomon  Schechter  (Roumania  1847-New  York 
1919).  Rabbi  Schechter,  in  the  course  of  his  life 
time,  was  the  President  of  the  Jewish  Theological 
Seminary  and  perhaps  the  greatest  of  American 
Jewish  thinkers.  He  was  the  author  of  a  number 
of  works  on  problems  of  Jewish  religion  and  made 
original  investigations  in  the  realm  of  Jewish 
history  in  mediaeval  times.  Associated  with 
Schechter  in  the  work  of  the  Jewish  Theological 
Seminary  were  scholars  like  Louis  Ginsburg, 


236  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Israel  Friedlander,  Mordecai  M.  Kaplan  and  sev¬ 
eral  others  who  assisted  with  their  scholarship  in 
the  maintaining  of  Jewish  tradition.  The  pres¬ 
ent  head  of  this  institution  is  Dr.  Cyrus  Adler,  of 
the  Dropsie  College  of  Philadelphia  and  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  American  Oriental  Society. 

The  greatest  cultural  event  in  the  history  of 
American  Jewry  was  the  publication  of  the  Jewish 
Encyclopedia.  This  monumental  work  is  the 
greatest  Jewish  work  of  reference  in  any  language 
and  was  projected  by  Dr.  Isidor  Singer  (Moravia 
1859).  It  was  edited  by  a  board  of  well  known 
scholars.  Dr.  Isaac  Funk  of  the  firm  of  Funk  & 
Wagnalls,  publishers  of  the  work,  was  Chairman, 
and  Frank  H.  Vizitelly  was  Secretary.  Four 
hundred  Semitic  scholars  of  Europe  and  America 
contributed  to  make  it  the  supreme  authority  upon 
all  matters  pertaining  to  the  checkered  history 
of  the  Jewish  people  in  all  the  phases  of  its  mani¬ 
fold  activity.  Five  years  were  consumed  in  the 
preparation  of  the  work. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  THE  JEW 

As  the  status  of  the  Jew  is  becoming  stabilized 
in  modern  society,  he  is  ceasing  to  be  the  Wander¬ 
ing  Jew  and  has  instead  become  the  Mysterious 
Jew.  The  student  of  folklore  and  of  the  survival 
of  myths  will  find  in  the  Gentile  conception  of  the 
Jew  an  interesting  perpetuation  of  a  primitive 
mental  attitude.  The  Jew  has  ceased  to  be  in 
league  with  Satan;  he  is  not  that  abnormal,  in¬ 
human  specimen  of  mediaeval  days  who  in  the 
popular  imagination  had  unique  odors  and  diseases 
and  was  possessed  of  cloven  hoofs  and  horns.  No 
longer  does  he  suffer  to  prove  that  evil  overtakes 
those  who  reject  the  conventionally  accepted  creed, 
nor  will  he  continue  to  wander  until  he  becomes 
purged  of  sin.  But  the  vital  thing  behind  these 
legends,  the  distrust  that  gave  them  birth,  lives  on, 
and  discarding  the  religious  symbols  of  a  religious 
age,  take  on  the  economic  and  racial  symbols  char¬ 
acteristic  of  an  age  of  scientific  and  pseudo-scienti¬ 
fic  theorizing.  Truths  may  come  and  truths  may 

237 


238  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

go,  but  some  legends  live  on  forever.  The  Jew  still 
stands  unique,  a  victim  of  his  fatal  conspicuity  and 
the  excessive  interest  taken  in  him  by  his  sur¬ 
rounding  neighbors.  It  still  remains  difficult  to 
conceive  him  as  a  normal  individual  and  to  denomi¬ 
nate  him  not  only  as  a  Jew,  but  as  a  person  and  a 
man.  Some  veil  of  mystery  or  separateness  must 
surround  him,  or  else  something  is  thought  amiss. 
But  analysis  means  the  death  of  mystery,  and  both 
the  saintly  halo  drawn  around  him  by  some  or  the 
brand  of  Cain  imprinted  upon  him  by  others  fade 
upon  a  survey  of  those  forces  that  have  created 
and  moulded  him. 

The  history  of  the  Jews  is  an  unending  tale  of 
suffering,  woe  and  degradation.  Here  and  there 
a  shaft  of  light,  a  temporary  gleam  illumines  the 
dark  pathway  through  which  there  has  moved  this 
tattered  procession  of  proud  outcasts,  but  by  and 
large  its  career  remains  a  monumental  testimony 
to  the  hatred  and  brutality  of  which  man  is  cap¬ 
able.  It  has  subsisted  in  the  lower  depths  for 
centuries  and  tasted  of  all  the  forms  of  torture, 
physical  and  mental  that  diabolical  ingenuity  has 
created.  It  has  lived  and  learned  as  no  other 
people  has  lived  and  learned,  because  it  has  suf¬ 
fered  as  no  other  people  has  suffered. 

Disraeli,  the  Jew,  who  tamed  the  world’s  proud¬ 
est  aristocracy  and  made  it  the  puppet  of  his 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  239 

fancies,  was  moved  as  all  intelligent  Jews  are 
moved  by  the  tragic  sublimity  of  this  people’s 
history,  and  summarized  in  a  few  eloquent  words 
the  whole  essence  of  its  career.  “The  attempt  to 
extirpate  them  (the  Jews)  has  been  made  under 
the  most  favorable  auspices  and  on  the  largest 
scale;  the  most  considerable  means  that  men  could 
command  have  been  pertinaciously  applied  to  the 
object  for  the  longest  period  of  recorded  time. 
Egyptian  Pharaohs,  Assyrian  Kings,  Roman  Em¬ 
perors,  Scandinavian  Crusaders,  Gothic  Princes  and 
Holy  Inquisitors  have  alike  devoted  their  energies 
to  the  fulfillment  of  this  common  purpose.  Ex¬ 
patriation,  exile,  captivity,  confiscation,  torture  on 
the  most  ingenious  and  massacres  on  the  most 
extensive  scale,  a  curious  system  of  degrading 
customs  and  debasing  laws  which  would  have 
broken  the  heart  of  any  other  people,  have  been 
tried  in  vain.” 

These  were  the  external  powers  that  repeatedly 
sought  to  crush  forever  this  landless  people. 
What  were  the  results  upon  the  object  of  its  lust? 

Psycho-analysts  have  divided  mankind  into  two 
classes,  introverts  and  extroverts.  The  class  of 
the  introverts,  viewing  the  grimness  of  the  human 
conflict,  finds  itself  unable  to  meet  life  on  its  own 
plane.  It  reconstructs  a  new  life  in  some  Utopia, 
it  finds  refuge  from  the  conflict  in  day  dreams  of 


240  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

its  own  power,  it  leads  an  imaginative  life  devoid 
of  all  the  harshness  that  is  part  of  reality.  Its  re¬ 
flective  powers  become  dominant,  “the  native  hue 
of  resolution  is  sickbed  o’er  with  the  pale  cast  of 
thought.”  A  race  of  impractical  dreamers  is 
bred;  thought  takes  the  place  of  action  in  its  life. 

Extroverts,  however,  meet  life  on  its  own  plane. 
Astuteness  is  developed  in  the  face  of  the  adver¬ 
sary;  all  the  acumen  is  concentrated  upon  the 
creation  of  the  symbols  of  security  and  independ¬ 
ence.  The  desire  to  master  realities  is  substituted 
for  the  reflective  powers;  these  extroverts  are 
bold,  alert,  and  ready  to  seize  every  opportunity 
that  gives  them  a  mastery  over  their  environment. 

Suffering  is  but  an  intensification  of  life.  It  is 
life  at  its  extreme  point.  Hence  the  participants 
in  an  existence  of  undue  suffering,  develop  in  an 
exaggerated  measure  the  same  qualities  that  nor¬ 
mal  introverts  and  normal  extroverts  possess. 
Types  are  brought  into  being  that  exceed  the  nor¬ 
mal  in  their  resourcefulness,  in  the  keenness  of  their 
wits,  and  in  the  rapidity  of  their  mental  processes. 
This  is  basically  the  story  of  the  evolution  of  the 
Jew  of  today.  One  class  of  Jews  met  life  on  its 
own  level  and  developed  faculties  that  enabled  it 
to  survive  despite  all  vicissitudes,  while  the  intro¬ 
verts  found  consolation  in  the  world  of  dreams 
and  of  intellectual  activity. 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  241 

Suffering  deepened  their  longing  for  justice;  de¬ 
gradation  awoke  within  them  the  hatred  of  tyr¬ 
anny.  They  reconstructed  an  ideal  life  for  the 
future  generations  of  men,  reared  on  the  basis  of 
equality  and  justice.  This  world  of  the  future 
was  substituted  for  the  existing  world  of  realities. 
They  enriched  themselves  upon  things  not  of  the 
material  world  but  on  dreams  and  learning.  The 
acquisitive  faculty  of  the  race  mastered  the  realm 
which  has  no  contact  with  the  world  of  persecutors 
and  persecuted.  It  accumulated  treasures  of 
erudition  and  idealism. 

Thus  the  soul  of  Israel,  split  into  two  warring 
elements,  emerged  from  behind  the  Ghetto  walls 
at  the  clarion  call  of  the  French  Revolution.  The 
Jewish  soul  revealed  itself  as  Janus-faced;  on  one 
side  was  the  visage  of  Rothschild  —  on  the  other 
the  visage  of  Karl  Marx.  One  element  found  the 
balm  for  the  disease  of  its  abnormality  in  a  Gilead 
of  economic  power;  the  other  found  refuge  in  the 
coming  world  of  equality  and  universal  brother¬ 
hood.  From  one  came  the  experts  in  the  science 
of  amassing  wealth ;  from  the  other  the  whole  host 
of  social  Messiahs.  Every  Jew  has  a  heritage 
from  two  ancestors  —  from  the  keen-witted  old- 
clothes  peddler  on  one  side  and  from  the  dreamy 
Talmudic  sage  on  the  other  side.  From  the  one 
has  come  much  of  the  theory  and  most  of  the 


242  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

pioneer  practice  of  our  modern  system  of  capi¬ 
talism  and  from  the  other  the  cry  of  its  remodifica¬ 
tion. 

Rulers  throughout  the  ages  consigned  their 
Jewish  subjects  to  Ghettos,  but  in  reality  they  only 
affirmed  the  natural  course  of  a  persecuted 
minority  to  flock  together  for  protection  and 
succour.  Hence  the  Jew  is  essentially  the  city 
dweller  in  practically  all  the  countries  of  the 
world.  But  it  is  to  this  city  life  that  the  Jew  owes 
his  ready  intelligence.  The  dull,  undisturbed 
monotony  of  the  life  of  the  husbandman  and  serf 
was  not  for  him;  he  located  himself  on  the  market 
place  to  engage  in  mental  combat  with  all  comers. 
In  this  alone  could  he  find  his  livelihood.  City 
life  for  obvious  reasons  breeds  the  sophisticated 
and  the  quick-witted,  while  the  peasant  through¬ 
out  the  ages  has  been  notorious  for  his  cumber¬ 
some  mental  processes.  “Reading  maketh  a  full 
man,  conference  a  ready  man,”  wrote  Bacon,  and 
what  does  one  do  in  a  city  if  not  continually 
confer? 

The  intensity  of  the  life  struggle  made  the  un¬ 
fit  pass  away.  The  strong-willed,  the  ingenious 
held  aloft  the  tattered  ensign  of  their  faith,  while 
the  timid,  the  weak-kneed,  those  unable  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  varying  gusts  of  circumstance, 
left  the  beleaguered  fortress.  A  selective  process 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  243 

ensued  and  those  that  survived  did  so  by  virtue 
of  certain  superior  faculties  of  mind.  In  the  mean¬ 
time,  pressure  from  the  outside  flung  disunited 
elements  together  and  forged  a  chain  of  solidarity 
that  has  become  a  remarkable  social  phenomenon. 

The  results  of  the  nomadic  tendencies  of  the 
Jews’  Bedouin  ancestors  still  are  potent  forces  in 
the  make-up  of  the  modern  Jew.  That  restlessness 
which  impelled  the  race  to  seek  newer  realms  and 
better  climes  imparted  to  it  during  the  course  of 
its  vicissitudes  an  adaptability  and  a  readiness  that 
are  useful  in  the  life  struggle.  What  is  so  potent 
a  factor  in  mental  development  as  travel,  and 
Israel  has  been  the  most  travelled  of  peoples.  The 
tribe  of  the  “wandering  foot”  to  keep  travelling 
had  to  develop  the  gift  of  quickness  of  thought, 
of  improvisation,  of  ready  comprehension.  Cruel 
expulsions  and  exiles  strengthened  the  natural 
tendency  so  that  the  Jew  attained  a  flexibility  of 
mind  far  beyond  the  normal.  “A  gallant  Greek,  a 
stupid  Jew,  an  honest  Gypsy,”  all  are  unthinkable, 
says  the  Roumanian  proverb.  “A  hare  that  is 
slow  and  a  Jew  who  is  a  fool,  both  are  equally 
probable,”  says  the  Spanish  proverb. 

If,  as  educationalists  write,  the  true  function  of 
education  is  the  fostering  of  adaptability  to  envir¬ 
onment,  then  Israel  is  truly  among  the  most  edu¬ 
cated  of  peoples.  The  power  of  adaptation, 


244  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

together  with  intelligence,  constitute  the  two 
premier  faculties  of  the  Jew.  The  struggle  for 
the  survival  was  more  intense  for  him  than  for  any 
other  people.  Hence,  he  enters  the  arena  of  life 
with  all  vices  and  virtues  generated  by  this  in¬ 
tensity  of  conflict.  He  had  to  acclimatize  him¬ 
self  continually  to  new  conditions;  every  day  might 
bring  forth  a  new  decree,  a  new  massacre,  a  new 
confiscation,  a  new  order  of  expulsion.  In  his 
wanderings  he  had  to  get  along  with  myriads  of 
new  situations  and  a  host  of  diverse  peoples,  lan¬ 
guages  and  customs.  He,  therefore,  before  all 
other  people  grasped  the  idea  of  the  essential 
unity  of  mankind.  He  came  in  contact  with  their 
differences  and  found  them  easily  reconcilable  and 
also  superficial.  But  from  all  his  travels  he  has 
learned  the  lesson  of  adaptability  and  to-day  the 
product  of  the  Odessa  Ghetto  stages  America’s 
gigantic  theatrical  spectacles  or  the  child  of  a 
small  Lithuanian  town  becomes  later  in  life  Pro¬ 
fessor  of  English  in  an  American  University. 

A  tremendous  factor  in  the  creation  of  the 
intellectuality  of  the  Jew,  has  been  the  power 
exerted  by  his  rabbinic  tradition.  For  centuries 
the  Talmud  was  the  fertile  soil  from  which  Israel 
drew  its  spiritual  and  its  mental  sustenance. 
Together  with  external  forces  it  moulded  and 
formed  the  Jewish  mind  of  today.  The  large 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  245 

masses  of  Jews  throughout  the  world  and  America 
are  dominated,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  by 
the  habits  of  thought  fostered  by  the  Talmudic 
sages. 

Among  no  people  has  the  worship  of  the  intel¬ 
lectual  powers  of  man  been  carried  to  the  same 
extreme  as  among  the  Jews.  The  Talmud,  a  vast 
encyclopaedia  of  laws,  discussions  and  speculations 
on  all  the  varied  phases  of  human  life,  has  been 
mainly  responsible  for  this  attitude  of  mind.  In 
the  Ghettos  of  Europe,  the  bright  children  of  four¬ 
teen  and  fifteen  were  taught  to  absorb  this  form 
of  erudition  and  to  discuss  all  the  intricate  and 
abstruse  problems  faced  by  ancient  Rabbis  of 
Israel. 

“May  a  judge  be  called  as  a  witness?”  “A  man 
has  admitted  half  a  total  liability  that  is  not  sus¬ 
ceptible  of  proof.  Some  Talmudists  consider  him 
credible  since  he  might  have  denied  the  whole 
liability.  Others  think  that  to  deny  the  whole 
liability  would  require  more  impudence  than  any¬ 
body  possesses  and  conclude  that  he  admitted  half 
his  liability  out  of  weakness.”  On  problems  such 
as  these,  youthful  Talmudists  are  supposed  to  dis¬ 
cuss.  The  lad  who  could  prove  himself  a  master  of 
all  the  subtle  problems  presented  in  the  Talmud 
was  most  sought  after  for  a  husband.  He  was  the 
ideal  to  which  all  children  aspired.  He  was  the 


246  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

pride  of  his  parents  and  the  glory  of  his  com¬ 
munity. 

Dr.  Fromer,  an  Eastern  Jewish  writer,  some 
years  ago  gave  an  account  of  his  youthful  life  in 
the  Ghetto.  Once,  while  visiting  a  Rabbi,  he  dis¬ 
covered  a  number  of  Jews  on  the  lookout  for 
profitable  husbands  for  their  daughters.  One  such 
Jew  met  an  acquaintance  who  was  accompanied 
by  his  son,  a  youth  of  fifteen  years.  The  acquaint¬ 
ance  sought  to  embarrass  the  youngster  with  all 
sorts  of  Talmudic  problems.  The  boy  “lay  low,” 
answered  warily,  and  presently  turned  the  tables 
on  the  questioner  by  displaying  his  erudition.  The 
latter  was  struck  by  the  lad’s  knowledge  and  asked 
the  father  whether  he  was  married.  Here  the 
parent  scornfully  remarked  that  marriage  brokers 
were  constantly  bidding  for  the  boy  but  he  was  in 
no  hurry  to  marry  him  off.  With  every  passing 
day  he  learnt  more  and  with  the  increase  of  his 
knowledge  came  an  increase  in  the  proffered 
dowry. 

Bargaining  then  began  despite  the  first  objec¬ 
tion  of  the  father.  It  ended  with  a  marriage  con¬ 
tract  which  stipulated  that  the  boy  was  bound  to 
marry  the  questioner’s  daughter  in  return  for  a 
dowry  of  $200.00  and  ten  years’  keep  for  the  boy 
husband. 

What  has  occurred  in  the  Ghetto  for  centuries 


i 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  247 

is  the  direct  antithesis  of  the  prevailing  trend  in 
modern  society.  The  more  intellectual  Jews  in  the 
preceding  ages  were  the  first  to  marry.  The 
higher  types  reproduced  themselves  more  fre¬ 
quently  than  those  who  lacked  the  qualities  which 
the  whole  community  thought  desirable.  The 
Ghetto  society  of  the  past  furnishes  perhaps  the 
sole  exception  to  the  universal  law  that  has  been 
the  nemesis  of  all  the  empires  that  have  vanished; 
the  continued  reproduction  of  the  unfit  and  the 
sterility  and  childlessness  of  the  intellectual 
classes.  A  remarkable  case  of  sexual  selection  has 
ensued;  it  would  be  difficult  to  parallel  it  with  the 
biological  processes  of  any  recorded  state  of 
society. 

Intellectual  interests  and  intellectual  skill 
played  the  predominating  role  in  his  life.  The 
physical  powers  and  activity  remain  largely 
neglected.  The  thirst  for  knowledge  is  insatiable ; 
his  intellect  is  continually  seeking  exercise.  “The 
Jews,”  says  that  enfant  terrible  of  American 
literature,  H.  L.  Mencken,  in  one  of  his  character¬ 
istic  diatribes  against  the  prevailing  civilization, 
“are  intellectually  two  or  three  steps  in  advance 
of  the  people  among  whom  they  dwell.”  Another 
observer,  Everett  Dean  Martin,  the  genial  leader 
of  the  Forum  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York,  in  his 
excellent  work  on  the  psychology  of  the  crowd, 


248  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

remarks  that  “outside  the  immigrant  Russian 
Jews,  there  is  very  little  real  intellectual  life.” 
The  Jew  has  a  tradition  of  learning  longer  than 
that  of  any  other  people.  Israel  first  introduced 
compulsory  education  for  the  youth,  and  when  this 
intellect  schooled  in  the  dialectics  of  Talmud  and 
Torah  emancipates  itself  from  the  walls  of  the 
Ghetto,  it  contributes  an  undue  proportion  of  men 
of  talent  and  capacity  to  the  world’s  civilization. 

“The  mind  of  the  Jew,”  wrote  Anatole  Leroy 
Beaulieu,  “is  a  faultlessly  exact  mechanism.” 
What  is  so  revealing  of  the  soul  of  a  people  as  the 
peculiarities  of  its  language  ?  In  these  it  expresses 
its  most  secret  thoughts  and  manners;  its  twists  of 
language  are  but  its  twist  of  intellect  and  emotions. 
In  expressions  for  activity  of  mind,  Hebrew  un¬ 
doubtedly  is  the  richest  of  languages.  There  are 
eleven  words  for  “seeking”  or  “researching”; 
thirty-four  for  distinguishing  or  separating;  fifteen 
for  combining.  Hence  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
scions  of  Israel  are  possessed  of  the  power  of 
quick  thought,  precise  analysis,  exact  dissection, 
speedy  combinations  of  ideas,  the  power  of  seeing 
the  point  at  once,  of  suggesting  analogies,  of  dis¬ 
tinguishing  between  synonyms.  In  diagnosing  dis¬ 
eases,  in  the  playing  of  chess,  in  mathematics,  in 
all  those  activities  where  these  particular  faculties 
come  into  play,  the  Jew  romps  off  with  more  prizes 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  249 

proportionately  than  he  is  entitled  to  by  his  num¬ 
bers 

There  is  another  contemporary  characteristic 
of  the  Jew  that  dates  from  remote  antiquity. 
Nomadism  has  ever  been  the  badge  of  all  the 
tribe;  there  has  been  no  people  that  has  lived  so 
small  a  proportion  of  its  national  life  upon  its 
own  native  soil.  At  a  very  early  age  the  Jew 
seems  to  have  discovered  the  prime  law  of  pro¬ 
gress;  restlessness  and  the  vision  of  better  things. 
He  did  not,  like  other  people,  transplant  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  his  desires  to  another  world,  for  this 
life  and  the  fullness  thereof  were  his  prime  con¬ 
cern.  When  Jehovah  closed  his  eyelids  in  death, 
eternal  darkness  came.  If  he  failed  to  live  here, 
he  failed  forever.  Progress  was  infinite;  there 
were  no  fixed  standards  which  having  been  at¬ 
tained,  made  further  effort  unnecessary. 

Though  even  of  the  dust,  he  aspired  to  the  stars 
and  the  permanency  of  any  status  not  based  on  solid 
achievement  was  for  him  incomprehensible.  “The 
learned  bastard  takes  precedence  over  the  ignorant 
high  priest,”  wrote  the  Talmud.  That  ancient 
rabbinic  author  expressed  profoundly  the  icono- 
clasm  of  Israel.  The  Jew  realized  that  most 
achievements  resulted  from  the  use  of  wits,  and 
egostistic  enough  to  believe  that  he  possessed  that 
precious  desideratum,  simply  set  out  to  achieve  it. 


l 


250  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

He  knew  only  one  Master,  God;  for  him  there 
were  no  intermediaries.  After  all,  a  man  may  be, 
despite  Carlyle,  a  hero  to  his  valet,  but  who  can  be 
a  hero  to  his  own  brother?  And  since  all  Israel¬ 
ites  were  brothers,  every  Israelite  was  an  incorrig¬ 
ible  democrat  and  individualist.  He  was  the  abor¬ 
iginal  democrat,  because,  one  suspects,  his  strong 
egotism  led  him  to  believe  that  he  was  just  as  good 
as  those  who  ruled  him. 

“All  is  vanity,”  wrote  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes, 
but  these  words  he  penned  in  an  Hellenic  and  not 
a  Hebraic  mood.  For  the  Jew  everything  has  a 
purpose,  from  the  creation  of  the  universe  to  dis¬ 
carded  old  clothing. 

The  Jew  has  lived  much  better  than  the  Gentile 
allowed  him.  He  has  escaped  most  of  the  brutal¬ 
izing  and  degrading  consequences  that  slavery  and 
oppression  bring.  His  unconquerable  spirit  —  his 
perseverance  and  inherited  optimism,  wearied  his 
inveterate  enemies.  The  Talmud  and  Torah,  the 
secret  spring  from  which  he  drew  his  sustenance 
and  nourished  his  starving  soul,  remained  intact. 

Most  remarkable  of  all  is  the  fact  that  in  the 
midst  of  all  his  suffering,  he  has  developed  a 
humaneness  that  is  stronger  in  him  than  in  anyone 
else.  Crimes  of  passion  and  violence  are  not  in 
his  ken.  Bloodshed  he  abhors  so  that  the  very 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  251 

meat  he  eats  must  be  purified  from  all  sanguineous 
traces.  The  Sanhedrin,  which  for  the  first  time 
in  seventy  years  condemned  a  man  to  death,  was 
called  bloody,  —  this  more  than  twenty  centuries 
before  the  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  war  and 
capital  punishment.  It  is  no  wonder  that  L.  J. 
Garven,  that  acute  English  publicist,  declared  the 
Jews  are  always  first  to  display  the  true  Christian 
spirit. 

Alcoholism  has  not  sapped  the  vitality  of  the 
Jew.  His  mental  faculties  have  been  kept  alert 
by  the  hostility  of  the  non-Jew  and  by  the  force  of 
his  Talmudic  tradition.  His  ambition  springs 
from  his  innate  individualism  and  his  democracy. 
His  adaptability  is  the  result  of  his  nomadic  life. 
Time  has  taught  him  the  necessity  of  patience  and 
his  will  power  is  another  aspect  of  the  hereditary 
“stiff  neckedness”  that  Moses  denounced. 

Combine  all  these  faculties  and  you  have  the 
secret  of  the  Jew’s  resiliency.  The  consummate 
ease  with  which  he  rebounds  from  the  lowest 
strata  of  economic  life  and  reaches  the  sacred 
precincts  of  prestige  and  culture,  which  are 
thought  to  be  the  monopoly  of  the  few,  are  to  be 
attributed  to  the  unique  combination  of  his  facul¬ 
ties.  Time  cannot  exhaust  nor  hostility  deplete 
the  stores  of  his  nervous  energy.  Centuries  before 


252  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Darwin  he  had  glimpsed  the  fact  that  life  was  a 
struggle  and  the  mode  of  existence  forced  upon 
him  has  endowed  him  with  the  precise  qualities 
that  now  make  him  successful. 


SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 


We  have  seen  thus  that  the  influence  of  the 
Jewish  race  upon  America  began  with  its  very 
discovery.  The  new  continent  came  into  human 
ken  in  the  same  year  that  the  Spanish  Jews  were 
driven  from  the  land  in  which  they  had  prospered 
for  centuries.  The  connection  between  the  two 
events  is  more  than  accidental;  the  possibility  that 
the  impulse  which  animated  the  Jewish  backers  of 
Columbus  was  that  of  creating  an  avenue  of  escape 
in  the  country  about  to  be  opened  or  reopened  to 
international  commerce  has  already  been  sug¬ 
gested.  Jewish  money  partly  contributed  toward 
the  financing  of  the  voyages;  Jewish  brains  were 
utilized  for  the  creation  of  those  maritime  instru¬ 
ments  which  made  the  trip  of  the  great  discoverer 
possible. 

More  than  a  century  elapsed  before  the  first 
permanent  settlements  were  made  in  the  new  conti¬ 
nent.  But  it  was  not  the  maritime  peoples  of  the 
Mediterranean  who  linked  their  destiny  with  the 
northern  portion  of  the  new  hemisphere.  Instead, 
a  hardy  pioneer  folk,  suffering  from  religious  per- 

253 


254  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

sccution  and  animated  by  a  desire  for  adventure 
and  economic  improvement,  began  the  work  of 
exploiting  the  resources  of  the  new  world. 

This  pioneer  folk  had  only  indirectly  come  in 
contact  with  the  people  of  Israel.  It  had,  how¬ 
ever,  been  bred  in  an  atmosphere  redolent  with 
Hebrew  culture  and  had  absorbed  to  the  uttermost 
the  book  of  books,  which  contained  for  them  the 
totality  of  human  wisdom.  The  Bible,  that  had 
to  a  large  extent  formed  and  moulded  Israel, 
formed  and  moulded  these  founders  of  the  north¬ 
ern  colonies.  The  religious  separatism  that  had 
preserved  the  Jewish  people  throughout  the 
generations  found  in  them  similar  devotees.  It 
gave  them  their  powers  of  endurance  and  their 
tenacity  in  the  face  of  all  obstacles. 

The  characteristics  of  the  Jewish  people,  its 
individualism,  its  democracy,  its  austerity,  and  its 
self-discipline,  all  of  which  flowed  from  its  reli¬ 
gion  and  its  Biblical  Training,  were  also  exempli¬ 
fied  in  the  Puritans  of  early  days.  Their  Biblical 
training  and  their  religion  developed  in  them  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  elements  of  character,  elements 
which  were  of  urgent  necessity  in  the  conquest  of 
the  new  continent. 

Here  was  the  Jew  at  the  very  beginning  of 
America.  By  personal  contact  he  had  contributed 
in  a  large  degree  to  the  discovery  of  the  new 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  255 

hemisphere,  later  by  the  very  force  of  the  ideals 
which  he  had  enunciated  centuries  previously  in 
the  land  of  his  origin,  he  created  the  types  instru¬ 
mental  in  laying  the  deeper  foundations  of 
America.  The  duality  of  the  Jewish  nature  was 
never  better  displayed  than  in  the  case  of  our 
country,  where  they  first  in  the  material  sense,  and 
later  in  the  spiritual  sense  contributed  toward  the 
making  of  the  republic  of  today. 

Nor  were  they  in  the  economic  sense  laggards. 
Their  participation  in  the  Dutch  West  Indian 
company  has  been  noted,  as  was  also  the  fact  of 
their  entrance  into  the  life  of  the  colony  of  New 
York,  prior  to  its  capture  by  the  English.  The 
Jews  raised  Newport  to  a  place  of  eminence  in  the 
commercial  world.  In  Georgia,  and  in  Charles¬ 
ton  they  planted  colonies  which  still  remain  intact 
despite  the  lapse  of  time. 

In  the  revolution  they  gave  forth  a  number  of 
officers.  Haym  Solomon,  the  Polish  Jewish 
immigrant,  gave  his  fortune  to  the  cause  of  the 
colonies,  and  his  heirs  to  this  day  still  remain  un¬ 
compensated  by  the  American  government.  Solo¬ 
mon  was  the  confidant  of  statesmen  and  from  his 
own  private  purse  maintained  men  like  Madison 
and  other  founders  of  the  republic.  In  the  War 
of  1812  the  Jews  gave  their  share.  One  of  the 
most  romantic  figures  in  the  war,  Captain  John 


256  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

Ordronneaux,  of  the  privateer  Prince  de  Neuf- 
chatel,  was  a  scion  of  Israel. 

In  the  Civil  War  also  the  Jews  gave  their  quota. 
Large  numbers  of  them  coming  from  the  lands  of 
oppression  in  Central  Europe  enthusiastically  en¬ 
tered  the  conflict,  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  was  a  cause  that  necessarily  appealed  to 
those  who  had  just  fled  from  the  rule  of  tyrants. 

In  the  World  War  they  gave  more  than  their 
due.  The  Lost  Battalion,  with  so  large  a  propor¬ 
tion  of  Jewish  men,  will  remain  a  forever  cher¬ 
ished  memory  of  American  military  history.  At 
the  same  time  it  will  And  its  way  into  the  annals 
of  the  Jewry  of  America.  In  the  mobilization  of 
the  civil  front  they  played  a  disproportionate  role. 
Three  out  of  the  seven  members  of  the  omnipo¬ 
tent  advisory  Committee  of  the  Council  of  Na¬ 
tional  Defense  were  of  Jewish  blood.  Their  num¬ 
ber  in  the  more  difficult  branches  of  army  service, 
infantry,  etc.,  was,  as  we  have  noted  above,  more 
than  their  general  proportion  to  the  population. 

Within  the  past  several  decades  they  have  pene¬ 
trated  into  all  the  realms  of  American  life.  In  the 
economic  field  particularly  they  have  labored  in- 
defatigably.  They  have  placed  merchandising 
and  distribution  on  a  firm  basis;  the  department 
store,  fulfilling  as  it  does  its  unique  function  in  the 
economic  life  of  America,  is  largely  the  creation  of 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  257 

their  brains.  The  clothing  industry  has  been 
raised  from  its  former  stagnant  position.  In 
1880  its  invested  capital  was  below  $100,000,000. 
A  generation  later,  due  to  the  influx  of  the  Jewish 
masses,  its  invested  capital  was  raised  to  an 
amount  variously  estimated  from  three-quarters 
of  a  billion  to  a  billion. 

The  second  generation  of  these  immigrant  Jews 
do  not  follow  the  same  occupation  as  their  parents. 
Their  sons  and  daughters  knock  at  the  doors  of 
all  the  institutions  of  learning.  They  constitute 
about  10%  of  the  student  body  of  America,  though 
the  whole  of  Jewry  is  a  little  over  3%  of  the  gen¬ 
eral  population.  They  are  taking  up  law,  medi¬ 
cine,  pharmacy,  teaching.  The  non-professional 
elements  of  the  second  generation  have  entered 
into  merchandising  and  manufacturing.  These  do 
not  confine  themselves  in  any  large  measure  to  one 
industry,  they  have  entered  into  all  the  paths  and 
bypaths  of  economic  activity.  Many  have  become 
manual  laborers,  others  have  entered  the  civil 
service,  federal,  state  and  municipal.  The  back 
to  the  farm  movement  is  gathering  momentum  and 
today  the  approximate  number  of  Jews  engaged  in 
agriculture  is  100,000.  In  the  theatre  they  have 
proved  a  potent  force  and  in  the  cinema  they  are 
the  most  powerful  factor.  A  number  of  hitherto 
obscure  Jews  by  sheer  force  of  ability  have  won 


258  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

their  way  into  a  position  of  power.  A  new  indus¬ 
try  has  been  practically  created  over  night  and 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  Americans  have 
gained  their  livelihood  owing  to  the  genius  and 
imagination  of  these  Jewish  pioneers  of  the  film 
industry.  In  the  theatre  they  are  active  as  man¬ 
agers,  producers,  actors  and  playwrights.  The 
production  of  one  of  the  great  religious  drama 
of  Christianity,  ‘The  Miracle,”  was  financed  by  a 
Jew,  Otto  Kahn,  and  staged  by  two  other  Jews, 
Morris  Gest  and  Max  Goldman-Reinhardt.  The 
Theatre  Guild,  America’s  most  promising  theatri¬ 
cal  institution,  is  almost  a  purely  Jewish  contribu¬ 
tion  to  America,  while  the  Yiddish  Art  Theatre 
has  gained  a  number  of  admirers  among  the  non- 
Jews.  The  American  thatre  has  been  stabilized 
since  the  Jewish  influx  has  begun. 

In  the  arts,  in  science  and  in  public  service, 
American  Jewry  is  giving  more  than  its  propor¬ 
tionate  strength.  There  is  no  field  in  which  the 
Jew  is  not  a  participant.  Music  in  America  is 
largely  a  Jewish  field;  violinists  particularly  pro¬ 
claim  the  musical  bent  of  the  Jews.  By  their  con¬ 
tributions  they  support  more  than  one  musical 
institution  which  otherwise  would  founder  on  the 
rocks  of  neglect  and  apathy. 

The  Jew  has  truly  made  himself  part  and  parcel 
of  American  life.  He  is  inextricably  connected 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  259 

with  its  very  warp  and  woof,  though  the  weapon 
of  social  antagonism  is  invoked  against  him.  Anti¬ 
semitism,  however,  is  the  cult  of  the  incompetent, 
of  the  failure,  of  the  unsuccessful.  Envy  has  al¬ 
ways  been  a  badge  of  certain  portions  of  the 
human  tribe  and  its  manifestations  break  forth 
upon  the  occasion  of  every  achievement.  To  the 
composite  picture  that  is  America,  the  Jew  has 
given  a  colorful  and  valuable  touch. 

The  Melting  Pot  in  the  meantime  is  boiling  and 
the  Jew  is  thawing  out.  The  members  of  the 
second  generation  are  miles  apart  from  their  for¬ 
bears.  They  have  absorbed  both  the  good  and 
the  bad  elements  of  American  life.  They  have  an 
air  of  self-reliance  and  independence,  but  the  in¬ 
tellectual  intensity  of  the  race  is  beginning  to 
diminish.  The  “Talmud  Chochum,”  the  rabbinical 
sage,  the  man  of  learning  was  the  ideal  of  the 
elders,  but  the  younger  generation  unfortunately 
shares  in  a  certain  measure  the  American  distrust 
of  the  “high-brow”. 

Physically  the  improvement  is  tremendous.  The 
children  are  taller  and  stronger  than  the  genera¬ 
tion  preceding  them;  the  cringing  look  has  dis¬ 
appeared  and  the  bent  back  of  the  ghetto  Jew 
gone  forever.  Their  interests  are  more  extensive 
than  those  of  their  elders,  nevertheless  the  in¬ 
herent  wisdom  in  the  tradition  and  experience  of 


260  The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America 

centuries  has  been  discarded,  very  unwisely,  by 
the  younger  generation. 

It  is  hazardous  to  prophesy  the  length  of  time 
which  the  Jewish  group,  as  such,  shall  exist  as  a 
distinctive  element  in  American  life.  Some  have 
predicted  that  the  hour  of  “Judendammerung,” 
the  twilight  of  the  Jew,  is  at  hand  and  that  the 
solvent  of  American  democracy  shall  disintegrate 
the  group  within  a  century  or  two.  Among  others 
the  Jew  is  looked  upon  as  a  permanent  factor  in 
the  life  of  the  peoples  among  whom  he  dwells. 

In  the  game  of  modern  competition  the  Jew, 
due  to  those  factors  which  have  been  analyzed  in 
a  previous  chapter,  frequently  plays  a  winning 
hand.  Motives  of  fear  and  of  envy  begin  operat¬ 
ing  among  the  non-Jews  who  surround  him,  and  we 
have  then  a  resultant  tension.  This  is  perfectly 
comprehensible,  though  in  a  state  of  society  where 
fair  play  is  a  cardinal  ethical  doctrine,  it  should  be 
an  impossibility.  The  virtues  of  the  Jew,  his  thrift, 
his  sobriety,  his  tenacity,  his  ambition  are  precisely 
the  qualities  that  give  him  prestige,  and  therefore 
give  him  his  unpopularity.  One  wonders  how 
much  more  intense  the  distrust  would  be  were  he 
devoid  of  all  faults  and  vices.  Dislike  for  the 
unlike  seems  a  permanent  element  in  human 
nature,  and  so  long  as  the  Jew  is  recognizable  or 


The  Jews  in  the  Making  of  America  261 

even  so  long  as  his  grandfathers  are  known  as 
Jews,  barriers  will  be  erected. 

Intermarriage,  if  its  desirability  is  granted, 
seems  impossible  for  the  group.  Individuals  here 
and  there  may  lose  themselves  in  the  non-Jewish 
life,  but  the  mass  as  such  will  continue  to  live 
with  a  varying  measure  of  separateness,  depend¬ 
ing  upon  local  conditions,  the  force  of  its  race 
pride  and  the  extent  of  the  antagonism  from 
without.  According  to  the  figures  of  the  bril¬ 
liant  sociologist,  Dr.  Julius  Drachsler,  the  rate 
of  intermarriage  between  the  Jew  in  America 
and  the  rest  of  the  population  is  the  lowest  of 
all  groups,  with  the  exception  of  the  colored. 
Whether  we  will  it  or  not,  the  conclusion  is 
unavoidable  that  though  the  cultural  assimilation 
of  the  Jew  is  rapidly  progressing,  his  physical 
union  with  various  elements  of  the  American 
people  does  not  seem  probable  in  the  near  future. 


CITIES  WITH  JEWISH  POPULATION  OVER  5,000 

Estimate  1917-1918 


Albany,  N.  Y . 

7,000 

Minneapolis,  Minn.  . 

15,000 

Atlanta,  Ga . 

10,000 

Newark,  N.  J . 

5  5  >000 

Baltimore,  Md . 

60,000 

New  Haven,  Conn.  . . 

18,000 

Bayonne,  N.  J . 

10,000 

New  Orleans,  La.  . . . 

8,000 

Boston,  Mass . 

77,500 

New  York  City . 

1,500,000 

Bridgeport,  Conn.  . . . 

12,000 

Norfolk,  Va . 

5,000 

Buffalo,  N.  Y . 

20,000 

Oakland,  Calif . 

5,ooo 

Cambridge,  Mass.  . . . 

8,000 

Omaha,  Neb . 

10,000 

Chelsea,  Mass . 

13,000 

Paterson,  N.  J . 

15,000 

Chicago,  Ill . 

225,000 

Philadelphia,  Pa . 

200,000 

Cincinnati,  Ohio  .... 

25,000 

Pittsburg,  Pa . 

60,000 

Cleveland,  Ohio  .... 

100,000 

Portsmouth,  Va . 

8,000 

Columbus,  Ohio  .... 

9,000 

Providence,  R.  I . 

15,000 

Dallas,  Texas . 

8,000 

Revere,  Mass . 

6,000 

Denver,  Colo . 

1 1 ,000 

Rochester,  N.  Y . 

20,000 

Detroit,  Mich . 

50,000 

St.  Louis,  Mo . 

60,000 

Elizabeth,  N.  J . 

5,000 

St.  Paul,  Minn . 

10,000 

Fall  River,  Mass.  .. 

7,500 

San  Francisco,  Calif. 

30,000 

Hartford,  Conn . 

16,000 

Savannah,  Ga . 

5,000 

Hoboken,  N.  J . 

5,000 

Scranton,  Pa . 

7,500 

Houston,  Texas  .... 

5,000 

Seattle,  Wash . 

5,000 

Indianapolis,  Ind.  . . . 

10,000 

Springfield,  Mass.  . . . 

6,000 

Jersey  City,  N.  J.  ... 

12,500 

Syracuse,  N.  Y . 

12,000 

Kansas  City,  Mo.  . . . 

12,000 

Toledo,  Ohio . 

7,500 

Los  Angeles,  Calif.  . . 

18,000 

Trenton,  N.  J . 

7,000 

Louisville,  Ky . 

9,000 

Waco,  Texas  . 

5,000 

Lowell,  Mass . 

6,000 

W ashington,  D.  C.  . . 

10,000 

Lynn,  Mass . 

7,500 

Waterbury,  Conn.  . . 

6,000 

Malden,  Mass . 

9,000 

Worcester,  Mass.  . . 

10,000 

Memphis,  Tenn . 

10,000 

Yonkers,  N.  Y . 

5,000 

Milwaukee,  Wis.  . . . 

20,000 

Youngstown,  N.  Y.  . 

5,000 

262 


POPULATION  BY  STATES 

Estimate  1920  by 
Bureau  Jewish  Social  Research 


Alabama  . 

11,150 

Arizona  . 

1,150 

Arkansas  . 

5,150 

California  . 

71,400 

Colorado  . 

15,380 

Connecticut . 

71,870 

Delaware . 

4,010 

District  of  Columbia. 

10,950 

Florida . 

6,940 

Georgia  . 

23,240 

Idaho  . 

1,160 

Illinois  . 

257,600 

Indiana . 

26,780 

Iowa . 

16,230 

Kansas  . 

9,590 

Kentucky . 

13,620 

Louisiana . 

13,020 

Maine . 

7,590 

Maryland  . 

65,330 

Massachusetts . 

199,300 

Michigan . 

71,360 

Minnesota . 

33,550 

Mississippi  . 

3,990 

Missouri  . 

82,570 

Montana  .  2,520 

Nebraska .  14,020 

Nevada .  510 

New  Hampshire  ....  3,370 

New  Jersey .  163,180 

New  Mexico .  880 

New  York .  1,701,260 

North  Carolina  ....  5,140 

North  Dakota .  1,590 

Ohio .  177,690 

Oklahoma  .  5,490 

Oregon .  18,260 

Pennsylvania .  340,740 

Rhode  Island  .  1,450 

South  Carolina .  5, 060 

South  Dakota .  1,310 

Tennessee  .  14,390 

Texas .  32,660 

Utah .  3,940 

Vermont .  2,260 

Virginia .  16,020 

Washington .  10,030 

West  Virginia .  5,440 

Wisconsin  .  30,100 

Wyoming .  560 


263 


GROWTH  OF  JEWISH  POPULATION  IN 
UNITED  STATES 

Tear  Authority  Number 

1818  Mordecai  M.  Noah  .  3,ooo 

1824  Solomon  Etting  .  6,000 

1826  Isaac  C.  Harby .  16,000 

1840  The  American  Almanac .  15,000 

1848  M.  A.  Beck  .  50,000 

1880  Wm.  B.  Hackenburg .  230,257 

1888  Isaac  Markens  .  400,000 

1897  David  Sulzberger  .  937, 800 

1905  Jewish  Encyclopaedia  . 1,508,435 

1907  American  Jewish  Year  Book . 1, 777, 1 85 

1910  American  Jewish  Year  Book . 2,043,762 

1914  Bureau  of  Jewish  Statistics  &  Research  . .  2,933,874 

1918  Bureau  of  Jewish  Statistics  &  Research  . .  3,300,000 

1920  Bureau  of  Jewish  Social  Research . .  3,602,150 


264 


INDEX 


Aaron,  Jonas,  65. 

Abarbanel,  Lina,  158. 

Aborn,  Milton,  190. 

Aborn,  Sargent,  190. 

Abraham,  Jedediah  ben,  196. 
Abrams,  Dr.  Albert,  198. 

Adams,  Brooks,  71. 

Adams,  Franklin  P.  (F.  P.  A.), 
151.  173,  174- 
Adams,  Herbert  B.,  33. 

Adams,  James  Truslow,  50. 

Adams,  Samuel,  56,  58. 

Addison,  69. 

Adler,  Celia  158. 

Adler,  Dr.  Cyrus,  236. 

Adler,  Francine  (Larrimore),  158. 
Adler,  Liebman,  87. 

Adler,  Samuel,  234. 

Adolphus,  King  Gustavus,  11. 
Altman,  121. 

Ambrosoes,  Moses,  62. 

Ami,  Jacob  Ben,  152,  158. 
Andreyev,  152. 

Anspacher,  Louis  Kaufman,  157. 
Anthony,  Joseph  (Rosenblatt),  166. 
Antin,  Mary,  166. 

Antokolsky,  192. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  77. 

Asch,  Sholom,  152,  175,  176,  231. 
Auer,  Leopold,  183. 

Auslander,  Joseph,  174. 

Bacharach,  Isaac,  215. 

Bacon,  243.  • 

Baker,  109. 

Baliefif,  148. 

Ballin,  Hugo,  194. 

Barton,  Clara,  224. 

Baruch,  Bernard,  106,  107,  219. 


Baruch,  Dr.  Simon,  220. 

Bates,  Blanche,  146. 

Baylies,  Francis,  49. 

Baylinson,  A.  S.,  194. 

Beard,  Charles  A.  and  Mary  R.,  9, 
12,  13. 

Beaulieu,  Anatole  Leroy,  248. 
Becker,  Maurice,  195. 

Beerbohm,  Max,  33. 

Belasco,  David,  146,  148,  157,  158. 
Bellingham,  Governor,  51. 
Bellomont,  Lord,  62,  63. 

Benchley,  Robert,  151. 

Bendix,  Max,  184. 

Benet,  169. 

Benjamin,  Judah  P.,  90,  91,  92. 
Berensohn,  Bernhard,  195. 
Berkovici,  Konrad,  168,  178. 
Berlin,  Irving,  191. 

Berliner,  Emil  Henry,  205. 

Bernal,  Maestro,  44. 

Bernard,  Barney,  158. 

Bernhardt,  Rachel,  158. 

Bernhardt,  Sarah,  158. 

Bernstein,  Herman,  166,  191,  229. 
Berolzheimer,  Philip,  187. 

Block,  Bertram,  151. 

Block,  Ernest,  190. 

Bloomfield,  Meyer,  217. 
Bloomgarden,  Solomon  (Yehoash), 

I7S: 

Bloomingdale,  121. 

Blum,  Solomon,  20 1. 

Blumenberg,  Leopold,  99. 

Boaz,  Prof.,  203. 

Bodenheim,  Maxwell,  163,  172, 
178. 

Bodzansky,  Arthur,  186. 
Boerhaave,  197. 


265 


266 


INDEX 


Boni,  Albert,  177. 

Boni,  Charles,  177,178. 

Booth,  Edwin,  146. 

Bradford,  49,  51. 

Brady,  Alter,  172. 

Brandes,  George,  167. 

Brandeis,  Justice  Louis  D.,  209, 
211,  213. 

Brenner,  Victor  D.,  194. 

Brentano,  149,  180. 

Breslau,  Sophie,  190. 

Brice,  Fannie,  158. 

Brill,  Dr.  Abraham  A.,  198,  203. 
Broad,  Bertha,  158. 

Brodsky,  Horace,  194. 

Bromwell,  17. 

Broun,  Heywood,  151. 

Brown,  Nicholas  L.,  1 77,  179. 
Brudno,  Ezra,  166. 

Butensky,  Jules  Leon,  194. 

Caballeria,  Alphonso,  36. 

Cabrero,  Juan  de,  36,  38. 

Cahan,  Abraham,  166,  231. 

Calli,  Alonzo  de,  43. 

Campbell,  Lieut.  Col.  Douglas,  115* 
Cantor,  Eddie,  158. 

Carlyle,  250. 

Carter,  Leslie,  146. 

Carvahlo,  Leon,  229. 

Celler,  Emanuel,  215. 

Chaliapin,  Feodor,  192. 

Charles  III,  of  Spain,  79. 
Chauncey,  51. 

Christ,  49. 

Clarkson,  Grosvenor  B.,  106,  107. 
Cleveland,  26. 

Cobb,  Irvin  S.,  10. 

Cohen,  Alfred  J.  (Alan  Dale), 
154.  155- 
Cohen  Bros.,  95. 

Cohen,  Dr.  Louis,  207. 

Cohen,  Morris  R.,  41. 

Cohen,  Octavus  Roy,  97,  166. 

Cohen,  Rose  Gollup,  165,  168. 


Columbus,  Christopher,  33,  34,  35, 

36,  38,  39.  40,  41*  42.  43,  44, 
46. 

Collier,  Constance,  158. 

Commons,  John  R.,  15. 

Connelly,  Marc,  151. 

Coralnik,  Dr.  Abram,  230. 

Cournos,  John,  164,  178. 

Crower,  Merle,  136. 

Czar,  183,  205. 

Dale,  Alan,  (Alfred  J.  Cohen), 
154,  155- 

Daly,  Charles  Patrick,  61. 
Damrosch,  Walter,  186. 

Darwin,  252. 

Davenport,  John,  52. 

David,  53,  57. 

Davidson,  Dore,  162. 

Davidson,  Gustav,  174. 

Davidson,  Jo,  193. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  91. 

De  Casseres,  Benjamin,  229. 

Dell,  Floyd,  177. 

Dembitz,  Lewis  Naphtali,  89. 

De  Lyon,  Abraham,  66. 

Deutsch,  Babette,  173. 

Dickstein,  Samuel,  215. 

Dimow,  Ossip,  157,  175. 

Dingley,  124. 

Disraeli,  92,  238. 

Dittenhoefer,  A.  J.,  89. 

Dix,  Henry  A.,  215. 

Drachsler,  Julius,  203,  261. 

Du  Bois,  W.  S.  Burghardt,  13. 
Duncan,  Isadora,  192. 

Duro,  Cesareo,  Fernandez,  37. 
Duveen,  195. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  52. 

Edison,  28. 

Edwards,  Maj.  Gen.  Clarence,  115. 
Eggleston,  Edward,  70. 

Ehrich,  Louis  W.,  195. 

Einhorn,  Rabbi  David,  87,  234. 


/ 


INDEX 


267 


Einstein,  Lewis,  227. 

Einstein,  Max,  100. 

Emerson,  169. 

En-Reques,  Joshua  Mordecai,  68. 
Epstein,  Alter,  175. 

Epstein,  Jacob,  193,  194. 

Evans,  Dr.  Evan,  200. 

Ezekiel,  Sir  Moses,  192. 

Fairchild,  Henry  Pratt,  9. 

Farrar,  Geraldine,  16 1. 

Feinstein,  Martin,  174. 

Feist,  Leo,  19 1. 

Feld,  Rose  C.,  217. 

Felsenthal,  Rabbi  Bernhard,  87, 
234- 

Ferber,  Edna,  164. 

Ferdinand,  34,  35,  38,  40. 

Fields,  Louis,  158. 

Fink,  Henry  T.,  182,  184. 
Fishberg,  Dr.,  138,  198. 

Fishman,  Joseph,  213. 

Fleisher,  Alexander,  217. 

Flexner,  Dr.  Simon,  197,  199. 
Fokine,  148. 

Forrest,  Edwin,  146. 

Fox,  William,  162. 

F.  P.  A.,  (See  Adams,  Franklin 
P.). 

France,  Anatole,  193. 

Frank,  Waldo,  163,  164,  168,  178, 
184. 

Frankel,  Kee  L.,  217. 

Frankfurter,  Prof.  Felix,  109,  110, 
21 1. 

Franklin,  77. 

Franklin,  Dr.,  58. 

Franklin,  Fabian,229. 

Franklin,  Rabbi  Jacob,  95. 

Franks,  David,  73,  76. 

Franks,  Isaac,  76. 

Freed,  Joseph  R.,  206. 

Freedman,  David,  168. 

Freud,  Dr.  Sigmund,  178,  198. 
Friedenwald,  Dr.  Harry,  198. 


Friedlander,  Israel,  236. 

Friedman,  Elisha,  204. 

Friedman,  Ignatz,  186. 

Friedman,  Max,  100. 

Frohman,  Charles,  146,  148. 
Frohman,  Daniel,  148. 

Fromer,  Dr.  246. 

Funk,  Dr.  Casimir,  197. 

Funk,  Dr.  Isaac,  236. 

Galileo,  197. 

Garden,  Mary,  161. 

Garven,  L.  J.,  251. 

Geary,  25. 

George,  King,  75. 

Gerson,  Levi,  ben,  43. 

Gest,  Morris,  146,  147,  148,  258. 
Gideon,  53. 

Gimbel,  12 1. 

Ginsburg,  Louis,  235. 

Gladstone,  92. 

Glass,  Montague,  151,  157. 

Gluck,  Alma,  184,  190. 

Godowsky,  Leopold,  186. 

Gold,  Michael,  174. 

Goldberg,  Dr.  Isaac,  166,167,180. 
Goldberg,  “Rube”,  195. 

Goldberger,  Dr.  Joseph,  199,  200. 
Goldenweiser,  Prof.,  203. 
Goldfaden,  Abraham,  176. 
Goldfogle,  Henry  M.,  215. 
Goldman,  Edwin  Franko,  187. 
Goldmark,  Rubin,  190. 
Goldenreyer,  146. 

Goldsmith  Bros.,  95. 

Goldwyn,  Samuel  (Goldfish),  16 1. 
Gomberg,  Prof.  Moses,  208. 
Gompers,  Samuel,  106,  107,  108, 
189. 

Gompertz,  Sergt.  Sydney  G.,  117. 
Goodman,  Jules  Eckert,  157. 
Gordin,  Jacob,  176. 

Gordon,  Vera,  162. 

Gorin,  B.,  175. 

Gorky,  152. 


268 


INDEX 


Gratz,  Bernard,  73. 

Gratz,  Michael,  73. 

Grant,  President,  226. 

Green,  Harry,  158. 

Guggenheim,  Mrs.  Daniel,  122, 
187. 

Guiterman,  Arthur,  171. 

Haam,  Achod,  50. 
Haldeman-Julius,  E.,  178. 
Halperin,  Nan,  158. 

Hammerstein,  Oscar,  147,  188. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  218. 
Hamsun,  Knut,  180. 

Hapgood,  Norman,  212. 

Harkavy,  Alexander,  175. 
Harrigan,  Capt.,  116. 

Harris,  Sam,  146. 

Hart,  Abraham,  100. 

Hart,  Meyer,  65. 

Hart,  Michael,  65* 

Hart,  Rachel,  65. 

Harte,  Bernard,  81. 

Harte,  Bret,  81. 

Hauptmann,  152,  154,  180. 

Hay,  96. 

Hecht,  Ben,  157,  163,  164,  168, 
178. 

Heifetz,  Jascha,  184. 

Heilprin,  Michael,  88. 

Heine,  46. 

Helbrum,  Theresa,  150. 

Heilman,  George,  195. 
Hergesheimer,  Joseph,  177. 
Hershfield,  Harry,  195. 
Heydenfeldt,  Judge  Samuel,  87. 
Hillman,  Sydney,  125. 

Hilquit,  Morris,  215. 

Hirsch,  Emil  G.,  234. 

Hirsch,  Maier,  89. 

Hirsch,  Samuel,  234. 

Hirsch,  Solomon,  227. 

Hirschbein,  Perez,  152,  176. 
Hochhauser,  Edward,  215. 
Hochstein,  David,  184. 


Hoffenstein,  Samuel,  174. 
Hoffman,  Aaron,  157. 

Hoffman,  Joseph,  186. 

Hollander,  Jacob,  201. 

Hoover,  220. 

Hopkins,  Arthur,  152. 

Horowitz,  Louis  J.,  129. 

Houdini,  158. 

Hourwich,  Prof.  I.  A.,  202,  23 1. 
Howard,  Rev.  Simon,  56. 

Howard,  Prof.,  214. 

Howe,  General,  98. 

Huebsch,  B.  W.,  177,  179,  180. 
Hughes,  Governor,  222. 

Hurok,  Solomon,  191,  192. 

Hurst,  Fanny,  165. 

Hurwitz,  Dr.  Henry,  230. 

Ibsen,  152. 

Isaacson,  Charles  D.,  188. 

Isabella,  Queen,  33,  34,  35,  37, 
4°,  43* 

Isaake,  Rebecca,  67. 

Israel,  David,  62. 

Israel,  Manasseh,  ben,  44,  61. 
Israels,  192. 

Jackson,  “Stonewall”,  102. 

Jacobs,  Dr.  Abraham,  197. 

Jacobs,  Benjamin,  80. 

Jacobs,  Joseph,  42,  43,  73. 

Jacoby,  Prof.  Harold,  203. 
Jacobson,  Maurice,  204. 

Jaffa,  M.  E.,  133. 

Jastrow,  Prof.  Joseph,  203. 

Jay,  77- 

Jefferson,  3,  58,  78,  193- 
Jehuda-Sebeth,  197. 

Joachimsen,  Philip  J.,  99* 

Johnson,  99. 

Jolson,  Al.,  158. 

Jonas,  Abraham,  95,  96. 

Jonas,  Benjamin  F.,  96. 

Jonas,  Charles  H.,  96. 


INDEX 


269 


Josephus,  56. 

Joshua,  53,  89. 

Judah,  56. 

Judah,  Samuel  B.  H.,  156. 

Juster,  Sergeant  Maurice,  103. 

Kahn,  Julius,  215. 

Kahn,  Otto,  150,  189,  258. 
Kaiser,  Ephram,  194. 

Kalb,  Baron  de,  74. 

Kalisch,  Bertha,  158. 

Kallen,  Horace  Meyer,  203,  21 1. 
Kaplan,  Mordecai  M.,  236. 
Kaufman,  Benjamin,  117. 
Kaufman,  George  S.,  151. 
Kaufman,  Sigmund,  89,  230. 
Kautsky,  Karl,  231. 

Kayserling,  Prof.  Moses,  34. 

Kean,  Charles,  146. 

Kepler,  197. 

Kern,  Jerome  D.,  191. 
Kingborough,  Lord,  44. 

Kiper,  Florence,  173. 

Kirjasoff,  Max  D.,  227. 

Klein,  Charles,  157. 

Knefler,  Frederick,  98. 

Knopf,  Alfred  A.,  177. 

Kobrin,  I.,  176. 

Kobrin,  Leon,  175. 

Kohn,  Abraham,  89,  198. 

Kohler,  Kaufman,  234. 

Korn,  Dr.  Arthur,  20 7. 

Kornfeld,  Rabbi  Joseph  Louis,  227. 
Korngold,  Erich,  190. 

Krantz,  Philip,  175. 

Krauskopf,  Rabbi  Joseph,  131. 
Kreisler,  Fritz,  184. 

Kuhn,  122,  1 5 1. 

Laemmle,  Carl,  162. 

Lait,  Jack,  229. 

Landis,  Judge  Kenesaw  M.,  218. 
Langdon,  Rev.  Samuel,  55. 

Langner,  Lawrence,  149,  150. 
Larrimore,  Francine  (Adler),  158. 


Las  Casas,  36,  37,  38. 

Lasker,  Albert,  218. 

Lasky,  Jesse,  161, 

Lawrence,  D.,  229. 

Lawrence,  D.  H.,  179. 

Lawrence,  Joseph,  8. 

Lavater,  197. 

Lazare,  56. 

Lazarus,  Emma,  169. 

Leader,  8. 

Leavitt,  Ezekiel,  174. 

Leavitt,  Dr.  Julian  W.,  n,  118. 
Lecky,  46,  54. 

Lee,  78,  102. 

Legardo,  Elias,  67. 

Lehman,  Irving,  209. 

Leisler,  63. 

Leon,  Edwin  de,  225. 

Leon,  Jacob  de,  74. 

Leon,  General  David  de,  97. 
Leopold,  Israel  (Ed  Wynn),  158. 
Lesser,  Sol,  162. 

Levins,  Sonia,  230. 

Levin,  Prof.,  201. 

Levin,  Isaac  H.,  208. 

Levine,  Dr.  Louis,  199. 

Levy,  Judge  Aaron  J.,  209. 

Levy,  Benjamin,  73,  80. 

Levy,  Bert,  195. 

Levy,  Bros.,  95. 

Levy,  Hayman  Jr.,  73. 

Levy,  Herman,  80. 

Levy,  Jessie  Miss,  209. 

Levy,  Sampson,  73. 

Levy,  William  Auerbach,  194. 
Levy,  Captain  Uriah  P.,  10 1. 
Lewisohn,  Adolph,  186,  213. 
Lewisohn,  Ludwig,  153,  154,  178. 
Lhevinne,  Joseph,  186. 

Libin,  Z.,  176. 

Libman,  Dr.  Emanuel,  2oo. 
Lieberman,  Elias,  173. 

Lilienthal,  Max,  234. 

Lincoln,  28,  89,  96,  99,  loo,  102. 
Lindo,  Moses,  67. 


270 


INDEX 


Lipman,  C.  B.,  133. 

Lipman,  Clara,  158. 

Lipman,  Jacob  G.  Prof.,  133. 
Lippman,  Walter,  21 1. 

Liszt,  193. 

Liveright,  Horace,  177,  178. 
Lodge,  Henry  Cabot,  12. 

Loeb,  Jacques,  199. 

Loeb,  Sophie  Irene,  230. 

Loeb,  121,  122. 

Loew,  Marcus,  160,  162. 

London,  Meyer,  215. 

Longfellow,  176. 

Longstreet,  General,  97. 

Longuet,  Jean,  231. 

Lopez,  Aaron,  64. 

Lossing,  81. 

Lourie,  Judge  David  A.,  209. 
Lowell,  Amy,  169. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  33. 
Lowenstein,  Fritz,  206. 

Lowenthal,  Marvin,  230. 

Lubin,  David,  134,  135,  216. 
Lushington,  Captain,  75. 

Luzerne,  Chavalier  de  la,  80. 

Maclay,  Edgar  Stanton,  81. 
Madison,  78,  225,  255. 

Mack,  Judge  Julian,  209. 

Makir,  Jacob  ben,  43. 

Manborgne,  Major,  207. 

Mann,  Louis,  158. 

Marco,  44. 

Marinoff,  Fania,  58. 

Marix,  Adolf,  104,  105. 
Marovitch,  Alfred,  186. 

Marshall,  Louis,  209,  222,  223, 
228. 

Martin,  Everett  Dean,  247. 

Marx,  Karl,  241. 

Maslow,  Ray,  201. 

Mayer,  General  W.,  100. 

Mayers,  Hy.,  195. 

Mayers,  Colonel,  Mordecai,  80. 
McChesney,  Emma,  164. 


McDonald,  Ramsay,  231. 
McGowan,  Kenneth,  151. 
McKenna,  Kennett,  (Leo  Miel- 
ziner,  Jr.),  158. 

McKinley,  104,  124. 

McSweeney,  Edward  F.,  (Intro¬ 
duction  to  Series),  1. 

Meltzer,  Samuel  Dr.,  198. 
Mencken,  H.  L.,  164,  177,  247. 
Mendel,  Prof.  Lafayette  B.,  199. 
Mengelburg,  Wille,  185. 

Mercer,  78. 

Mercier,  92. 

Meyer,  Adolphus,  97. 

Meyer,  Eugene  Jr.,  no. 

Meyers,  Carmel,  162. 

Michelson,  Prof.  Albert,  202,  229. 
Michelson,  Charles,  229. 
Mielziner,  Leo,  194. 

Mierowitz,  William,  194. 

Milton,  190. 

Minis,  Isaac,  66. 

Mindlin,  146. 

Mitmitsky,  184. 

Moeller,  Philip,  150. 

Moise,  Joseph,  67. 

Moisseiff,  Leon  M.,  208. 

Mordecai,  I.  Randolph,  98. 
Mordecai,  Moses,  73. 

Mordell,  Albert,  166. 

Morgan,  12 1. 

Morgenthau,  Henry,  227. 

Monroe,  78,  155. 

Morais,  Sabato,  87. 

Morris,  122. 

Morris,  George  P.,  155. 

Morris,  Ira  Nelson,  227. 

Morris,  Robert,  77,  78,  80. 

Moses,  48,  52,  53,  56,  58, 

Moses,  Isaac,  80. 

Moses,  Montrose,  154. 

Moses,  Col.  Raphael  J.,  97. 

Motta,  Jacob,  de  la,  74. 

Moultrie,  General,  75. 

Myles,  Jerome,  194. 


INDEX 


271 


Nathan,  George  Jean,  152,  153, 

154- 

Nathan,  Robert,  166. 

Naumburg,  Elkan,  187. 

Nazimova,  Alla,  158. 

Negri,  Pola  (Pauline  Schwartz), 
162. 

Nehemiah,  Seignor  Moses,  6 7,  68. 
Nethersole,  Olga,  158. 

Newton,  197. 

Nicoll,  Daniel,  229. 

Neichoff,  71. 

Nicolay,  96. 

Niger,  S.,  231. 

Noah,  Major  Manuel  Mordecai, 
80,  155,  156,  225. 

Nones,  Major  Benjamin,  74. 

Nunez,  Dr.,  66. 

Nyberg,  Sydney,  166. 

O’Brien,  Edward  J.,  168. 

Ochs,  Adolph  S.,  228. 

Oglethorpe,  General,  65,  66. 
Opatoshu,  I.,  175. 

Oppenheim,  169. 

Oppenheim,  Jas.,  168,  170. 
Oppenheimer,  Ben,  97. 

Ordroneaux,  Capt.  John,  81,  82, 
256. 

Ornstein,  Leo,  184,  185* 

Paderewski,  Ignace,  194. 

Paine,  Robert  Treat,  56. 

Paine,  Thomas,  57. 

Pam,  Judge  Hugo,  209. 

Pankin,  Jacob,  215. 

Panzini,  179. 

Papini,  Giovanni,  180. 

Parker,  Dorothy,  151. 

Partridge,  51. 

Pavlowa,  192. 

Peixotto,  Benjamin  F.,  225. 

Penn,  7. 

Perlman,  Nathan,  215. 

Perlmutter,  157. 


Peters,  Madison  C.,  102. 

Pharoah,  58. 

Phillips,  Jonas  B.,  156. 

Pinner,  Moritz,  89. 

Pinski,  152,  157,  175,  176,  180. 
Pinto,  Abraham,  74. 

Pinto,  Solomon,  74. 

Pinto,  William,  75. 

Plotz,  Dr.  Harry,  197. 

Poldan,  44. 

Potash,  157. 

Proskauer,  Judge  Joseph,  209. 
Pulitzer,  Joseph,  229. 

Rabinoff,  Max,  de  la,  189,  190. 
Ragorodsky,  Abraham,  208. 

Raisa,  Rosa,  190. 

Raisin,  Dr.,  207. 

Raison,  Milton,  174. 

Raphael,  Rabbi  Morris  J.,  87,  88. 
Reed,  Florence,  158. 
Reinhardt-Goldman  Max,  258. 
Renton,  Don  Francisco,  79. 

Reyner,  51. 

Rice,  Elmer,  157. 

Riega,  Don  Celso  Garcia,  41,  42. 
Riesenfeld,  Hugo,  188. 

Rimini,  Giacomo,  190. 

Ripkind,  Morris,  1 5 1,  174. 
Rodriguez-Rivera,  Jacob,  64. 
Rolland,  Romain,  18 1. 

Roosevelt,  Colonel,  103,  227. 
Rosen,  Max,  184. 

Rosenau,  Prof.  Milton,  200. 
Rosenbach,  195. 

Rosenblatt,  Benjamin,  168. 
Rosenblatt,  (Joseph  Anthony),  166. 
Rosenfeld,  Morris,  175,  176. 
Rosenfeld,  Paul,  185. 

Rosenoff,  Prof.,  208. 

Rosenwald,  Julius,  106,  108,  223, 
228. 

Rosewater,  Victor,  229. 

Roth,  Samuel,  173. 

Rothapfel,  S.  L.,  188. 


272 


INDEX 


Rothchild,  241. 

Rowe,  Leo  S.,  227. 

Rubinow,  Dr.  I  M.,  204. 

Rush,  Dr.,  57. 

Ryan,  Father,  215. 

Sachs,  T.  B.,  198. 

St.  John,  Irvine,  145,  148. 

St.  Paul,  54. 

Salomon,  Haym,  77,  78,  79,  80, 
81,  255. 

Samuel,  53,  57,  58. 

Samuel,  Maurice,  166. 

Santangel,  Luis  de,  34,  36,  37,  38, 

39*  4®* 

Santangel,  Martin  de,  35. 
Santangel,  Mosen  Luis  de,  35. 
Sanchez,  Gabriel,  35,  36,  38,  40, 
43- 

Sanchez,  Roderigo,  43. 

Sanders,  Leon,  215. 

Sapiro,  Aaron,  135,  136,  177. 
Sargent,  190. 

Sarnoff,  David,  205. 

Saul,  56. 

Sawelson,  Jacob  L.,  118. 

Sawelson,  William,  118. 

Schechter,  Rabbi  Solomon,  235. 
Schenck,  Joseph,  162. 

Schiff,  Jacob,  Henry  and  Mor¬ 
timer,  121,  223,  224. 
Schildkraut,  Joseph,  158,  162. 
Schildkraut,  Rudolph,  158. 
Schindler,  Kurt,  186. 

Schnittkind,  Dr.  Henry  T.,  142, 
177,  180. 

Schulberg,  William,  162. 
Schuman-Heink,  192. 

Schwartz,  Pauline  (Pola  Negri), 
162. 

Schwartzchild,  122. 

Seddon,  93. 

Segal,  Vivienne,  158. 

Seidel,  Yoscha,  184. 

Seldes,  Gilbert,  230. 


Seligman,  Edwin  R.  A.,  122,  201, 
228. 

Selikowitch,  George,  232. 

Selleck,  8. 

Seltzner,  Thomas,  177,  179. 
Selwyn,  146. 

Seybert,  Adam,  16. 

Seymour,  Horatio,  81. 

Shakespeare,  152. 

Shapiro,  191. 

Shapiro,  Jacob  Salwyn,  203. 
Sharfman,  Prof.  Leo,  204. 

Sharpe,  Rev.  John,  63. 

Shaw,  152. 

Sheffler,  Henry  M.,  201. 

Sheftal,  Mordecai,  75. 

Shipman,  Louis,  157. 

Shomer,  Abraham,  157. 

Shore,  Viola  Brothers,  166. 
Shubert,  146. 

Shylock,  158. 

Sidis,  Boris,  203. 

Siegel,  Isaac,  215. 

Simon,  Robert,  166. 

Simonson,  Lee,  150. 

Singer,  Dr.  Isidor,  236. 

Snitkin,  L.  A.,  209. 

Snowden,  Philip,  231. 

Sokoloff,  Nicolai,  186. 

Solomon,  Adolphus  S.,  224. 
Solomon,  Edward  D.,  (or  Salo¬ 
mon),  98. 

Sombart,  60. 

Spencer,  Rev.  T.  A.,  9. 

Spewack,  Samuel,  229. 

Speyers,  122. 

Spiegel,  Marcus  M.,  100. 

Spingarn,  Joel,  166,  228. 

Starr,  Frances,  146. 

Starratt,  Theodore,  130. 

Steinmetz,  Charles  Proteus,  204. 
Stein,  Gertrude,  164. 

Stern,  12 1. 

Stenben,  78. 

Steuer,  Max,  209. 


INDEX 


273 


Stieglitz,  Alfred,  195. 

Stieglitz,  Julius  Oscar,  208. 

Stock,  Ferdinand,  186. 

Stokes,  Rose  Pastor,  175. 
Stokowski,  Leopold,  186. 

Stransky,  Joseph,  186. 

Straus,  Isidore,  97. 

Straus,  Manny,  no. 

Straus,  Nathan,  221,  222. 

Straus,  Oscar,  226. 

Strindberg,  179. 

Strinsky,  Simeon,  229. 

Stuart,  Gilbert,  76. 

Stuyvesant,  60,  62. 

Suderman,  180. 

Sulzberger,  122. 

Swartz,  Maurice,  152. 

Taft,  William  Howard,  105. 
Tannenbaum,  Abner,  174. 
Tannenbaum,  Frank,  213. 

Tappan,  Dr.  David,  58. 
Taubenhaus,  Jacob,  133. 

Taussig,  Edward  David,  104,  201. 
Tesla,  Nicklas,  206. 

Thebaud,  A.  J.,  8. 

Thorowgood,  44. 

Tilzer,  Alfred  Von,  191. 
Tobenkin,  Elia6,  166. 

Tokutomi,  Kenjiro,  180. 

Torres,  Luis  de,  43,  44,  45. 

Touro,  Judah,  82,  85,  223. 

Ullman,  Samuel,  98. 

Ulrich,  Leonore,  147. 

Untermeyer,  Jean  Starr,  170. 
Untermeyer,  Louis,  170,  211. 
Untermeyer,  Samuel,  169,  209, 

218. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  81. 

Vechten,  Carl  Van,  177. 

Vernon,  Captain  John,  8. 

Virga,  Solomon,  197. 

Vizitelly,  Frank  H.,  236. 


Vizino,  Joseph,  43. 

Volk,  Lester,  215. 

Wald,  Lillian,  220,  221. 
Walkowitz,  Abraham,  194. 
Warburg,  121,  223. 

Warburg,  Paul,  217,  218. 
Warfield,  146,  158. 

Warwick,  Robert,  158. 
Washington,  George,  2,  28,  76. 
Wasservogel,  Justice,  209. 

Weiman,  Rita,  165. 

Weinberg,  Louis,  195. 

Weiner,  Leo,  203. 

Weinstock,  Lubin  (Co.),  216. 
Wenger,  John,  194. 

Wetheim,  Maurice,  1 50. 

Westley,  Helen,  150. 

Weyl,  Walter  E.,  21 1. 

Wheaton,  Henry,  79. 

Whitlesey,  Colonel,  116. 

Wiernick,  Peter,  231. 

Williams,  Oscar,  174. 

Williams,  Roger,  64. 

Wilson,  James,  79. 

Wilson,  President,  26,  221. 
Winslow,  Thyra  Samter,  165. 
Wise,  Isaac  M.,  223. 

Wise,  Stephen  S.,  235. 

Wohlheim,  Louis,  158,  162. 

Wolf,  Simon,  93,  94,  95, 

Wolfe,  S.  Herbert,  no. 

Wolman,  Leo,  21 1. 

Wood,  146. 

Wynn,  Ed.,  (Israel  Leopold),  158. 
Yahweh,  55,  56. 

Yehoash  (Solomon  Bloomgarden), 
175. 

Yeomans,  Robert,  8. 

Yezierska,  Anzia,  165,  178. 

Young,  Michael,  Harry  de,  230. 
Young,  17,  18. 

Yulee,  David  (born  Levy),  87. 


274 


INDEX 


Zacuto,  Abraham,  42,  43. 
Zadok,  56. 

Zeitlin,  Alexandre,  194. 
Zevin,  Israel,  175. 


Zhitlovsky,  Dr.  Chayim,  231. 
Zimbalist,  Efrem,  184,  191. 
Zon,  204. 

Zukor,  Adolph,  160,  161. 


I 


J* 


UNIVER9ITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBAN  A 


3  0112  042187556 


